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Looking at random people's profiles on social media

32 replies

Territorial · 27/02/2019 17:07

No one would admit to this in real life, so I thought I'd see if I really am a total weirdo or if others do this too.

When I'm on Instagram or Facebook I often find myself looking at the profiles of people I barely know or even complete strangers. I don't mean celebrities or 'Instagram famous' people, just ordinary everyday people with a few hundred followers. Sometimes they're friends of friends, sometimes they're friends of friends of friends...you get the picture. I like to look at their photos, see what they've posted. I don't know why I do this exactly except that I'm just curious. I understand people looking at the profiles of ex partners and having a stickybeak, but these are people I might have met once or don't even know at all in real life. It's like I'm building a wider database in my mind of overlapping social circles, but then I also find myself getting interested in their lives too. I could tell you that X has just gotten divorced, Y is in a new relationship, all because I check their profiles every so often. I've occasionally been introduced to someone in real life and already known all this stuff about them from their profiles.

Does anyone else do this? I feel like a bit of a weirdo as I know things about their life and they have no idea who I am. But then I also think they clearly don't care if people do that since their profiles are on public!

OP posts:
LimeKiwi · 27/02/2019 20:44

Anyone else also sometimes have an urge to write a comment on a complete stranger's status or random like or laugh at something on there just to freak them out and they think "who the heck's that?!"
Grin

WildFlower2019 · 27/02/2019 20:46

Yes I sometimes do this on FB. If somebody has commented in a group and they catch my eye (might be name, comment or profile picture). I'll just go have a little snoop on their profile sometimes.

Not catch eye as in think they're attractive. It's usually women (I'm straight) and I just fancy seeing what their life is like for a brief second

It sounds very odd now I spell it out, ha!

ShatFic · 27/02/2019 20:54

I Facebook stalk loads of people, sometimes just people I've read a local news article about.
But to the receptionist wo does it - you need to be careful as you may come up as a suggested friend to anyone you've looked up. A friend of mine had an altercation with someone in a pub then found out his name when he came into her place of work. She looked him up so appeared on his 'people you may know'. He complained to the shop she worked at and she was fired for gross misconduct.

LimeKiwi · 27/02/2019 22:00

She looked him up so appeared on his 'people you may know'. He complained to the shop she worked at and she was fired for gross misconduct

I find that highly unlikely - the FB algorithms throw up people you may know based on all manner of stuff - friends in common, friends of friends of friends, people near your town, if you have your college or high school on your about me info, other people who went to your college even if 20 years ago...... etc etc etc

In other words, some random with a grievance could come into your place of work and complain that you'd been looking them up - how would they even begin to prove that?! Hmm

hippoherostandinghere · 27/02/2019 22:06

Another hobby of mine is looking up people who appear in the court reports on the local newspaper fb page.

Ribbonsonabox · 27/02/2019 22:15

Oh yeah totally... people I meet in real life, people who make a comment I like on something, people who make a comment I disagree with, people with a name I like, people with good hair lol!! Just find people interesting really. I keep all mine public so people can do the same in return if they like Haha! It's great seeing how different people really are to each other.
I'm quite nosy in general though, love looking round peoples houses listening to conversations etc... I dont do anything with the info or talk about it... I just like to get an idea of people and their lives, just find it fascinating what everyone is up to!

ShatFic · 28/02/2019 04:51

LimeKiwi I won't go into further detail to be outing but it definitely happened. People don't seem to realise that searching for someone results in you appearing as a suggested friend but I found out years ago when I got caught out, and it's since been confirmed to me by someone who works in that field. I now block anyone I stalk so they can't see me.Smile

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