I have friends all over the world. I’m pretty sure the only continent where I don’t know someone is Antarctica — and there have been several near misses there. A huge number of those friends I’ve met through Twitter. I’ve met tons of people through Twitter and have have even arranged the occasional face-to-face get-together.

But lately I’ve heard several people discouraging travelers from tweeting, at least about their travels. While it’s more of an issue for folks on vacation, the concern is that if a huge number of people know where you are and where you’re going, something bad could happen. The most common concern seems to be if someone was to rob your house after you tweeted that you were on vacation in another country.

Honestly, I’m just not that concerned. At the very least, I feel like the benefits far outweigh those concerns — after all, how many people have tweeted that they’re in trouble while traveling? We’ve heard about natural disasters, arrests and all sorts of things where someone was able to get out a tweet but might not have managed much more communication beyond that.

Furthermore, I take some precautions when I travel, in terms of my home. Most of the time there is someone else here — while I don’t mention the fact very often on Twitter, I don’t live alone — and I do a little more than just lock the door if I’m planning to be gone for a while. I would hope that most travelers are taking similar precautions in terms of whatever home base they rely on.

I think the worry, in this case, is unjustified. As long as you take reasonable precautions, like not tweeting that you’re leaving such-and-such address and you won’t be back for six months, I think you’re going to be just fine.