Yes, and if you live (actively) in any mid-tier city for any appreciable amount time, recommendations become superfluous, because you basically know every estab

Yes, and if you live (actively) in any mid-tier city for any appreciable amount time, recommendations become superfluous, because you basically know every establishment in the city, what's trending, what's not, and where to go (and where not to go) to get what you want. For food, clothing and goods. Whatever. And when something new opens up, you hear it about it. Friends give you the rundown, judgements proliferate, etc. I don't have a use for Foursquare or Yelp and, as far as I know, none of my friends do either. (For size reference, I live in Baltimore, MD.) Edit: I'll add, too, that "check ins" that get posted socially seem to be viewed increasingly as self-indulgent "look at me and my lovely life" signals. There was a time that such posts, along with "pics of my delicious dinner at trendy restaurant", etc., were regular and acceptable. That time is quickly passing, I think. The analogy is talking about how much money you have, or how cultural you are, etc. This isn't really polite and most people secretly roll their eyes in response to it. It appears either calculated or in incognizantly bad taste. This is just an anecdotal observation, of course. But these kinds of things have basically disappeared from my feed, which might just be an effect of an aging list of friends rather than a broader usage pattern. I suspect it's a generally emerging standard of social media etiquette though.