Why Teens Love Location-Sharing

It's been six years since I wrote about the impact of location-sharing apps on trust and relationships. Six years is a long time when it comes to technology. In those years, location tracking has become the norm, especially among Gen Z. What started as a tool for oversight, safety, and convenience has expanded to become a form of social glue used to coordinate plans, see who's out and about, or to simply feel included. Even though it's virtual, seeing friends' dots move around a map can give a sense of closeness and comfort. Watching others' routines and activities can create a sense of intimacy that strengthens bonds even when there's no practical need. The ambient awareness of seeing friends' locations delivers the warm, fuzzy feelings associated with social connection and support. It’s no wonder it’s popular, but location-sharing can come at a price.

Location sharing has become a sign of closeness for Gen Z.

Source: Tolgart/Getty Images Signature

Safety remains the most frequently cited reason for using location tracking. Parents often feel that knowing a child's location provides a 'safety net.' Life360, a cross-platform app that dominates the family safety and location-sharing market, estimates that about 10% of American families track the real-time locations of family, friends, or other groups using GPS. Another popular app, FindMy, operates exclusively within the Apple ecosystem but is particularly popular among teens because it's free on all Apple devices.

Location-sharing has been around in one form or another for over 15 years, so the parents of today's 18-year-olds have been able to track their kids since they got their first mobile devices. This may help explain why the adoption of location-sharing is so high among Gen Z. They have grown up being tracked through location sharing. Teens often view parental monitoring as the "price" of freedom, although many take comfort knowing that their parents are keeping a watchful eye.

Sharing for Safety and Social Connection

Find My and Life360 have helped normalize location sharing, but the emergence of Snap Map was the tipping point from safety to social. Snap Map was designed as a social discovery platform to make location sharing fun, visual, and integrated with social media content. According to Life360 (2023), over 75% of teens actively use location-sharing apps, and 95% of Gen Z say that location sharing benefits their lives. Most teens cite the benefits of location-sharing as making them feel safe, especially young women, but it has evolved into a means of communicating and showing affection among friends. Life360 argues that location sharing has prompted Gen Z to embrace a new culture of safety among friend groups. There may be truth in this, but the real driver is social.

The convenience of knowing your friends' locations has turned location-sharing into a symbol of relationship status. Some kids report that location sharing is expected among close friends or romantic relationships. And while sharing locations can feel like a gesture of trust, many report that it's just fun to know where your friends are.

Visibility Triggers Comparison and FOMO

The apps now function as real-time social media platforms where young people can see not just where their friends are, but what kind of lives they're living. This creates new opportunities for FOMO, social comparison, and digital drama that extend beyond traditional social media posts.

For adolescents, who are developmentally wired for social comparison and identity exploration, seeing friends out without you can trigger feelings of exclusion or inadequacy. And because location visibility is mutual, many teens feel pressure to appear busy, even if they're not. The result is a pressure to perform to avoid a negative appraisal from others.

Social Pressure to Share

When everyone shares their location, not sharing can be perceived as secrecy, avoidance, or even a lack of trust, creating peer pressure to share, even when it is unwanted. Turning it off when there's an expectation of access can cause conflict among friends. In romantic relationships, the meaning attached to visibility or invisibility can become a real minefield. Location sharing can cause distress and confusion when a relationship ends, and teens don't know how to opt out. Unlike unfollowing someone on other social media platforms, turning off location is a visible action. Young people may feel they have no choice but to give constant access to maintain their social relationships, effectively trading privacy for a sense of belonging.

Support vs. Surveillance

Apps like Life360 provide detailed information, including arrival times, driving speed, and exact routes. This may appeal to worried parents, but it can also feel intrusive or controlling to teens, especially when done without consent.

Many have raised questions about how constant monitoring, even voluntary location sharing, may impact how we navigate our social environment. In one study, Seymour et al. (2024) found that being watched affected cognitive functions such as memory and attention, impacting consciously controlled behaviors and unconscious, involuntary visual processing. If we are training our brains to operate under the assumption of constant surveillance, what are the potential implications for things like creativity, risk-taking, and authentic self-expression?

Social Media Essential Reads

Meta Will Use Your AI Chats to Gather Data on You

Scrolling for Survival: Cooking Videos Are the New Food Bank

Location tracking can also fuel digital arguments and create an expectation of instant accountability, shifting social norms about responsiveness and privacy. It also carries serious risks when tracking turns to an invasion of privacy, stalking, harassment, or coercion. Questions like "Why didn't you respond?" or "Why weren't you where you said you would be?" now come with location-based "evidence."

Communication and Consent

Whether between friends or between parents and children, open communication and mutual consent are essential. Tracking a child without their knowledge turns even the best intentions into spying and can undermine trust and damage the parent–child relationship. Surveillance without consent often backfires. What's appropriate oversight for a tween can be developmentally restrictive for a teen, sending them right to YouTube and TikTok for a tutorial on how to bypass tracking apps.

There are compelling examples of location-tracking saving the day, but knowing a teen's location doesn't guarantee safety. Knowing a location is no replacement for skills like decision-making, boundary setting, and situational awareness. Location sharing for safety should also be accompanied by conversations that promote critical thinking, help teens think about the trade-offs, weigh the risks and benefits, make informed decisions about when and with whom they want to share their location, and learn strategies for opting out when it doesn't feel right.

How can we help teens set healthy boundaries?

• Keep the lines of communication open.
• Explain and encourage boundary setting.
• Practice what you preach.
• Be a nonjudgmental source for problem-solving.