Social Media & Casual Stalking

Social media is an amazing thing. It’s hard to think that it was pretty much non-existent a decade ago. Now, there have been so many that have come and gone with new ones every other week trying to break in, I can’t help but wonder, “how healthy is social media for a society that has replaced mail with electronic messages and phone conversations with text messages and actual get-togethers with video chats or ‘face time’?” Does social media encourage anti-social tendencies and a new form of stalking my friends and I call “casual stalking.” You know what I’m talking about. You check up on people you never see or talk to in real life (IRL) to see what they’re doing. Maybe you even search for an ex or two. Next thing you know, you’ve spent hours looking through their pictures, posts, and message feeds. In a world that has taken all the normal forms of communication and socializing digital, we’re taking the creepy forms digital too now. Welcome to the age of the digital. Welcome to the future, to where regular people who would never go around stalking someone IRL, can easily become casual stalkers from the comfort of their own house.

What are your thoughts on this?