Location sharing is part of social life with Gen Z — but it can take a mental toll

Chantle Jovellanos knows where all 22 of her closest friends and family members are at any given time, with the help of Apple’s Find My function.

The 18-year-old from Toronto checks it when she’s on her way to meet up with someone to see if they’re running late, or occasionally just to see what friends are up to, though never, she says, in a nosy way.

“It’s the same kind of vibe as when you text a friend to check up on them,” she said. “It’s kind of just like being like, ‘Oh, I wanna see what’s going on in their life right now.’ “

For younger social media users like Jovellanos, location sharing has become a way to stay connected and signify who your inner circle is. A recent survey by CivicScience found that Gen Z adults were the age group most likely to share their locations with others. 

Last week, Instagram unveiled its new Maps feature, joining a growing list of platforms like Find My, the Life360 app, and Snapchat’s Snap Map, which allow users to know each other’s whereabouts in real time. Social media experts and psychologists say sharing this information, even with friends and family, comes with consequences, and they urge social media users to think carefully before clicking “share my location.”

But according to Jovellanos, sharing your location with someone says, in essence, that you trust them. So when you stop sharing, or refuse to do it in the first place, that can send the opposite message.

“It’s kind of like the equivalent of unfollowing someone on social media,” Jovellanos said, recalling a situation where a former friend stopped sharing their location with multiple people at once, triggering an uncomfortable conversation that led to the end of the friendship.

What’s Instagram’s map feature?

Meta, Instagram’s parent company, stresses that its new Maps feature is turned off by default. Users who opt in can also select who they want to see their location, turn off location sharing for certain geographical locations and turn the feature off entirely at any time.

In a blog post, the company pitched the map feature as a “new, lightweight way to connect with each other.”

But so far the feature doesn’t seem…