Note: This article may contain spoilers about the series âYOU.âÂ
With just a picture and a click, we may allow vulnerable information to be easily accessible on a data saving platform that has millions of users. What happens if someone puts together all this sensitive content? This issue is discussed on the âYOUâ Series by Caroline Kepnes, in which the protagonist, Joe Goldberg, assaults, kills, and stalks multiple people. You might think to yourself that this character is out of his mind. The truth is that we may not be very different from him.
Retrieved from the “YOU” Trailer on YouTube
Itâs the 21st century, and even though we donât have flying cars, we carry around intelligent devices that contain essential facts about our identities. Names, birthdates, legal documents, house addresses, finger print, credit card number, and even copies of our facial features are stored on our phones. Not only do we encapsulate all of our private details, but we also share them on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook⊠We post our locations, the time at which we visit those places, and even what weâre wearing⊠All of this is more than sufficient to be a victim of a cyberstalker. Cyberstalking means when someone uses the internet to harass or stalk other people. In the âYOUâ series, social media is the main tool that Joe uses to gather his targetâs information. Their ages, jobs, marital status, preferences, and families: everything that could possibly be of interest to Joe is available in a single place. Now, this behavior only seems like a sociopathic trait or a supervillainâs actions. The reality is that modernity has conditioned us to acquire these practicesâto some extent. Today, keeping track of othersâ activities has been normalized as social media platform usage increases. Statistics demonstrate that in 2021, over 4.48 billion people across the globe were involved in social networking. So, yes, slowly, we are getting programmed to live behind a screen, sharing all the details about us.Â
You⊠who cautiously decided to give your precious time to know everything about someone, and youâre a college student, so your free time is condensed and reduced to the minimum. Clearly, they deserve to acknowledge your effort, or perhaps, could you have been the hunter? Luring cautiously through someoneâs account without their awareness? It sounds strange to put it this way, but would it be a coincidence if, for some reason, thereâs cyberstalker or stalker behavior in⊠you?Â
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels
Deeply researching who someoneâs relatives are
Knowing who someoneâs aunt is before even introducing yourself to them doesnât sound very friendly, right? Rather, itâs more like an invasion of privacy and a noticeable hint of trouble. Donât get me wrong, itâs alright to see a post where your friend poses with a stranger, leading to you finding out that they are relatives. Thereâs a difference between seeing unconsented information and actually researching among someoneâs followers, comments, or likes to conclude with their relatives. For Joe, it was a habit to stalk his victims, and he usually aimed to find their romantic interests or details about his victimâs preferences, hobbies, etc. If you find yourself involved in such activities, doesnât it take the spark of dating? Of giving colors to a stranger and finding the beauty in them? I understand⊠youâre shy and donât want to mess things up, and you donât want to know about any person, just this one person who is intriguing enoughâŠÂ
Gathering personal information
Gathering personal information such as someoneâs phone number, email address, full name, or their birthdate is considered a stalking activity. Regardless if itâs to know their zodiac sign, youâre possessing delicate details that were not provided to you. Rather, you somehow got to know them. This information can vary from birthdates to deep secrets. Just like in the 3rd season of âYOU,â Joe collected information about Willâs dark past, which ended up in his death. Gathering information isnât exactly the best thing to do. Even if itâs your crush, Joe Goldberg did these things too and it didnât end very well. Picture it this way, if you wouldnât ask the person directly about something, then donât try to find answers on the internet. Why would they share anything they are not willing to talk about? Talk to them instead!
Online Scamming and catfishing
Online scamming and catfishing are not equal to wearing makeup. It refers to misrepresenting who you are, what you look like, or what you do. It means to shapeshift your personality online and manipulate people to get their attention. This applies to faking your image on dating apps such as Tinder, Grindr or Bumble.Â
As a collective, weâve all fallen for the idea that the internet is superficial, harmless, and that not everybody sees what we share. And, although we do not cyberstalk to the level that Joe does, ăŒat least I hope that you donâtăŒthe influence of technology and social media has normalized oversharing our information and over researching othersâ lives. So⊠next time keep in mind that, when you post something, it no longer belongs to you. It belongs to all of us. Â