By: Te’Devan Kurzweil
It recently occurred to me that because of Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and such, the ancient art of stalking has now become something easy, and something normal. No longer is it necessary to dig through the garbage, memorize schedules, dedicate hours of your day talking to and making friends with the person you are stalking. We live in a whole new era where almost everyone uses social media to some degree as a means of stalking. Not only that, but it is completely socially acceptable!
I have been on occasion stalked through this means or through my blog. Luckily there have been no incidents, and I have no qualms about how easy and simple this has become. I just think it is really funny that at one point it was considered really uncool or creepy and now it’s the status quo. Heck, I would even say stalking has become sort of hip, and even assumed.
Facebook has made it so that anyone could be a stalker. You can know someone’s mood, what they recently ate, where they are, and where they are going to be. You can see who they are friends with and the friends you have in common. You can read their wall posts (which share even more information because people can’t seem to discern the difference between personal messages and wall-posts). You can discover if they are single, in a relationship, and my personal favorite “in a relationship but its complicated”.
It is amazing how technology can transform a behavior from socially deviant to normal. I welcome anyone reading this to tell me they’re completely comfortable in knowing that we have become the very thing we once judged. The only difference between stalking of yesterday and stalking of today is the ease. Everyone has gained little virtual portals into everyone else’s private life just by pressing a few buttons. All the work has been done for you and no effort needs to be made on your part.
In fact, stalking is has become so commonplace that today it has become the business model for entire companies. The information you dig up about that girl in class is the same used by marketing companies, potential employers, colleges, and governments. They use it to know more about us than most people would ever feel comfortable allowing strangers to know. Yesterday’s stalker has not only been accepted by society, but is today’s social entrepreneur as well.
Check out the video below to experience Te’Devan in action.
