The millennials have turned into nothing less than virtual stalkers. I could mince my words but that is exactly what we are. And we have social media to thank for it. Today, we have five different social media platforms that function the same way but are still being used widely by our generation. However discomforting it may sound, our entire life has a virtual version of it which we unthinkingly share with the world.
Whether we are out for a movie or have gotten a new piercing, chances are that our social media family gets to know about it earlier than our real family does. The smallest of activities in our daily routine are posted on every social media platform possible making it ridiculously easy for anyone with access to know all about our whereabouts and other information about us. It has not only allowed others to stalk us but has converted us into stalkers too. We do find ourselves compulsively stalking other people without any purpose.
- Facebook is the hub of all the stalking. Be it posts, pictures or check-ins, it is utterly easy to find out what another person is up to if they are very active on the platform. People often stalk their former partners to find out who they are dating at the moment or they stalk acquaintances to find something controversial, worth gossiping about.
- Snapchat is another version of a photo journal, only that it is virtual and that a lot of people can see it. And now, Snapchat has a map feature too which makes it very simple for anybody to locate you through your avatar. It is somewhat crazy how we are so interested in viewing the minute-to-minute happenings of another person’s life through this application.
- Instagram is very similar to Snapchat except the fact that the pictures shared through it remain uploaded until you remove them. People all around the world use Instagram to set trends that are mostly superficial so as to gain followers. Now that Instagram has the story feature too, it is yet another pointless photo journal for one to keep.
While all of us realise the evils of social media, we still negligently indulge in it. We might cringe at the idea of someone else virtually stalking us but we are also guilty of doing the same at some point or the other. Our entire generation suffers from this disease of having the compulsive need to know what other people’s lives are like and how much fun they are having. And we have this constant urge to showcase that we are having way more fun than anyone else. It is vicious circle of a baseless inferiority complex that has no end.
Most of don’t even realise that we have become harmless stalkers even though we might have no intentions to do so. And it is these and many other social media platforms that have largely contributed to it. The easy access to another person’s life with a simple click of a mouse sitting right at home, is an epidemic that has spread all over the world and there are no signs of the possibility of eradicating it.
