Stalking Instagram Stories

[WinterNightsByCandleLight]

Right, ladies, is this weird?

One of my OH's work colleagues doesn't follow me on Instagram (and doesn't have me on Facebook either) - the two other women who work in his department that OH is close with, do follow me, and I follow them also! We all get along well and regularly chat/have banter etc - not sure that's relevant but thought I'd add it in anyway!

So, the one that doesn't follow me (who I also don't follow)..
I noticed this evening that she'd watched my Instagram story that I posted this afternoon. Upon spotting this, I went back through my Archive of Instagram stories and have seen that she's been watching my daily stories almost religiously for nearly three months now?! 🤔 To watch someone's story that you dont follow, you need to search for them to get to their profile and then watch it that way - as opposed to when you do follow someone, their story will appear at the top of your feed making it nice and easy to quickly tap and see what people are posting.

Is it weird that she's quite blatantly searching for my profile on an almost daily basis to watch my stories!? I think it is.. I told OH about it but he can't see why it bothers me. For the record, it's not that it 'bothers' me as such, I just find it quite creepy and strange!

Oh and before people jump to it, I can categorically rule out anything going on between weird stalker colleague and my OH!

I thought if you had a private account people that are not your friends cannot view anything on your account- is that not correct?

My account isn't private, so of course, anyone can see what I post. But searching for me almost every day to view my stories just seems plain odd. If she's that interested in what I'm getting up to, why not just follow me? Why go to the effort of physically searching for my profile each time? I can't make heads or tails of it 🤷🏻‍♀️

Make your profile private, see if she request to follow you.
Or leave your profile on private for a while, then turn it back to public after a week or so, and see if she still views your stories then.
Very strange, I would be creeped out by that aswell!

It definitely feels odd to me and I can't seem to come up with explanation for it. I guess, short of directly asking her why she's doing it, I'll never know!

I think I'm going to keep my eye on it for a while and see if she continues! Strange!

Why does it bother you? What you think she's going to do?
Maybe your name came as a suggestion and she clicked on it, once you've been searched it would be in recent. So they wouldn't be putting your name In every time.

Maybe they were/are just being nosey, or don't want to add you as you are friends with others but not her.
I think it's strange you have a public account but spend time checking people and then writing post excusing them of stalking.

Fair enough if I came up as a suggestion one time, meaning she doesn't need to actively type my name each and every time - but the fact of the matter is, she's not following me, so she's still having to go to recent searches to then click on my name to view my stories. It doesn't make sense.

I mean, there's no other way of wording it other than stalking.
If I wanted to see someone's posts and stories daily.. I'd follow them, regardless of how close we may be in real life. There's no one on this planet that I'd search for to see their stuff every day, and if I wanted to see their posts or activity, I'd click follow. 🤔

Being nosy, browsing, looking, watching, way more different words. She may not like you or she doesn't want you Seeing what she does in her spare time or on her page.
Are you adding interesting stories?

Her page isn't private either..?
If she doesn't like me, why is she constantly seeing what I'm doing? Lol! Literally zero sense there.

My ex did this, he clearly didn't realize you could see who has watched stories. He didn't use Instagram expect for looking at other people's stuff. I blocked two account of his before message the thirds one he created to creep my stories and said "so....still checking up me huh?". Stopped overnight!

That is weird.

She’s actively searching out your stories every day, I don’t even watch my friends stories that often! Put it on private and see if she requests to follow you.

Is it possible she's got a crush on your other half? That could be a reason as to why she's so interested in you.

It's not like my OH is good friends with her either, they're the literal definition of just two people that work in the same place - so with them not being close it makes even less sense for her to want to always see what I'm doing.

I have people on my Instagram that I follow such as best mates and family, and as soon as they put up a story, I'll watch it - because I'm interested in what they're getting up to. But I wouldn't go out of my way to watch someone's story basically every day when I don't know them or follow them 😫

If she's still being odd over the next few days, I think I'll either switch to private for a little while, or send her a message.

@ChippyPickledEggs I've no idea! OH doesn't follow her on Instagram or have her on Facebook. They're literally just colleagues and nothing more. It's all a bit odd

Surely if you post something online publicly you are happy for anyone to watch it. If you don't want her to see your stories then either stop posting them or block her.

So you've never looked at someone's profile you don't like? Old mate, ex, old school friends. Make sense.

Honestly I think it's just as odd to have a public page but then not like somebody looking at stuff you have publicly published. She doesn't need to follow you when your page is public anyway. Maybe she's nosy, maybe she just finds your stories entertaining. If you don't like random strangers watching your stories then make your account private.

I've an old high school bully of mine and an ex that both do this. Thing is I'm 99% sure the high school bully knows how insta works so not sure why she is doing it but with my ex I'm 99% sure he is clueless at how it works!

I agree with you it's strange. But people have a fascination on social media for stalking. She might actually just find you interesting and isn't sure how to approach you but enjoys your insta. Maybe she is bored and enjoys a good daily stalk of various people not realising that function. Maybe she doesn't even realise she isn't following you because she looks you up so often. Either way, I guess you'll probably won't know but have every right to wonder and be a little bit wtf about it

I think Instagram puts the stories you watch to the front of your list even if you don’t follow someone.
So maybe she looked at you once and Instagram put your stories on her feed along the top and the. Because she clicked on you it kept it there. She might not even realise she doesn’t follow you.

Total non problem. Just make your stories private or stop posting them.

You can see who's watched your stories?

Shit, I paranoid about who's I've watched who I don't actually follow! Mainly famous people, but there might be the odd real life person I've looked at.

Shows I'm a big Instagram follower, I rarely post stuff myself and don't use stories on Instagram or Facebook.

When I press on search it comes up with a list of people I've searched so she wouldn't be searching for you each time, you'd be top of the list.

Why doesn't she follow you? Maybe she just finds your stories interesting? 3 months is a long time though to watch and not follow.

She watches your stories cos you're entertaining, I guess . I mean, you post stories every single day..... That's a big involvement in Instagram.

She clearly doesn't know or doesn't care that you can see it. Possibly she doesn't follow you because she prefers Stories and doesn't find your actual feed nearly as entertaining.

But I think it's a reach to say she's stalking. I watch approx 10 people's stories a day. I takes about 10 mins (I fast forward through #ads or boring stuff). For all you know she could be watching twice that! And several could be people she hasn't bothered following, but who does a good story. And you know yourself that after you've searched for someone a couple of times you barely have to type two letters in the search box and they'll suggest the right person, it's hardly a chore.

I just think it's not as big a deal to her as it is to you, and you run the risk of looking really OTT if you contact her about it.

It may be not this at all, but equally I wouldn't dismiss an option that she's got a crush on your OH.
Yes they are just colleagues and not friends, he has no interest in her but that doesn;t mean she doesn't secretly fancy him. Some people are excellent at hiding their crushes, especially as she knows he's unavailable, why would she want to embarrass herself in the office?

But it's less a case of 'oh this random person has been on my profile accidentally' and more 'this woman who works with my OH is going on to profile every day to see what I'm getting up to'. There's a big difference.

Honestly, my stories are not exciting whatsoever, generally pretty bloody boring, certainly not worth coming back for on a daily basis. And like I've said, if it is that she finds me interesting (really don't think that's the case here though) why wouldn't she just follow me? I follow loads of people that I don't know well/at all purely because I like the photos they post or they're funny, have beautiful homes, cool jobs etc.

It just seems weird to think every day 'ah, time to check Winter's Instagram and see what she's been up to since the last 12 hours that I had a look.. let's just open up my search bar... '