There is no greater candidate for a job with the FBI… than a woman with a crush. A recent study found that Gen Z and Millennials have “alarmingly relaxed attitudes towards online stalking.” But considering we all do it…why wouldn’t we? The term “stalking” (also know as “creeping” or “lurking”) has now take on a colloquial form, as all sorts of people use the internet to gather information about other people: ex partners, future partners, the ex of an ex, prospective employees, people they think are hotter or cooler than they are. But even if “creeping” is not stalking in the technical sense, even if it’s something we all do, why are we so ashamed to do it? In this season premiere, Hannah and Maia ask whether creeping is inherently creepy, and discuss the different affordances of social media that make it the perfect breeding ground for nosiness. As these “mass personal” channels of communication facilitate parasocial relationships of even the closest kind, have we become private celebrities to each other? Or are we all, as we always have been, just massive creeps? Tangents include: Maia’s evil ex-landlord, Hannah’s sorely misunderstood Baby Jane halloween costume, and dramatic readings of some truly diabolical “creeping” anecdotes from the lovely listeners.
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Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:
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SOURCES:
Amelia Abraham, “12 People Admit To Their Social Media ‘Stalking’ Habits,” Refinery29 (2016).
“CMV: It's not "creeping", "snooping", or "being a creeper" to browse social media content that presumably was put there for exactly that purpose.,” Reddit (2015).
Frampton, J. R., & Fox, J, “Monitoring, Creeping, or Surveillance? A Synthesis of Online Social Information Seeking Concepts,” Review of Communication Research, 9, (2021).
“Gen Z and Millennials Accept Online Creeping and Stalking as Part of Dating Culture,” GEN Digital (2023).
Laura Pitcher, “Are You in a Parasocial Relationship With ‘the Other Woman?’” Digiverse (2023).
Morgan Sullivan, “A Love Letter to All My Exes’ Exes’ Instagram Accounts,” The Cut (2022).