While everyone you know has some form of social media account, you don’t necessarily want to connect with everyone you know on social media. Be it a meddlesome coworker, an ex-girlfriend or boyfriend or that guy from your high school psychology class – some people you just have no desire to associate with – in-person or online. Unfortunately, these individuals may be ignorant of or not share this same sentiment – and you’ll inevitably receive an invitation to connect on social media.

Most people are naturally avoidant of any interpreted slight or rudeness, so with a begrudging acceptance of their online request comes an immediate ‘hide’ or ‘unfollow’ from Facebook – but despite your actions to limit your social media exposure to these Internet-interlopers, with location check-ins, you may find yourself face-to-face with the ones you were hoping to avoid.

As is colloquial with the times, luckily there’s an app for that.

For all the anti-social-inclined comes Cloak, an application designed to help you elude those any unwanted interactions in public. When you connect Cloak to your Instagram or Foursquare – two location-centric platforms – it will notify you as to the whereabouts of all your online friends who have checked-in nearby. The application brings up a map, and you can ‘flag’ certain individuals and receive alerts when they come within a certain distance – helpful when trying to side-step those you’d rather not see.  

The social media scale has become so extensive that applications are now being conceived to actively steer clear of others. It’s an intriguing sign of the times for sure, and a further example of how the line is being blurred between personal and technological lives.