I did ithe deep dive for somebody I recently met and I wish I could erase from my memory some of the posts I found 😱

Anonymous wrote:I just did this yesterday on someone from high school. First in college she travels to the world's most obscure country. Gets married after a whirlwind courtship. Brings the guy back to the US and they have a child. He gets into med school and graduates, yay! Then he sort of disappears. Then she's posting about being a single mom and selling her house. I feel sad for her and creepy that I learned all this, and annoyed that this is how I spent an hour of my life.

I relate to knowing this stuff.

Anonymous wrote:I did this and liked an old post! So embarrassing. I stalked him because I met him in a conservative religious setting but then he came out as gay, and I was curious about how he went from Jesus proselytizer to posting selfies of him and a bunch of muscular gay men in a hot tub. Fortunately I never interact with him.

Did I learn my lesson? No. I still do this on occasion.

+1, I've done this and accidentally liked the old post and even though I unliked it immediately who knows. But my curiosity gets the best of me and I can't resist doing it, though I suppose I'm more careful about not accidentally liking.

The fact that fewer and fewer people leave old photos/posts up for a long time only makes it more tempting when you happen across an acquaintance who does -- it really does feel almost like an invitation because why else would they leave them all up like this?! I am the same way about public Instagram feeds for acquaintances. It's insane to me that any non-public figure would have a public Instagram they actually post to, so when I discover one I feel like I HAVE to look at it because it's like... that must be what they want, right? Why else would you do this? I have a grad school classmate who leaves hers public and posts daily about everything -- work, kids, spouse, hobbies. It's not even that her life is so riveting, but there is something about the fact that she puts it all out there that makes me want to look. It's like reality TV -- it's not like those people are that interesting, but their willingness to open up their lives in that way sparks my curiosity.

Anyway, I have not learned my lesson, I still do this with frequency. Ironically (or not?) my own social media is incredibly locked down and rarely used -- I post like twice a year and you can't see anything anywhere more than a couple years old. I had a bad breakup about 10 years ago after which I started being much more careful with my social media because I didn't want my ex poking around. Congratulations to anyone who hasn't been through that and let's it all hang out!

I did this and liked an old post! So embarrassing. I stalked him because I met him in a conservative religious setting but then he came out as gay, and I was curious about how he went from Jesus proselytizer to posting selfies of him and a bunch of muscular gay men in a hot tub. Fortunately I never interact with him.

Did I learn my lesson? No. I still do this on occasion.

I met a lady at a conference and we are similar age, same neighborhood,in a similar field and I thought we could perhaps be friends. Did the deep dive and read all about her DWI arrest a few years ago. Didn’t pursue the friendship because I was embarrassed to know that about her and was afraid I would slip and mention it. Deep dived on a colleague and (he is young, early thirties) his parents sued each other for child support and talked about his learning disability and who had to pay for the therapies and it’s all public record. Wonder if he knows? Feels funny to know these things about others.

Anonymous wrote:One ofmy guilty pleasures.

Same. It's so disappointing when everything older is locked down.

No I don't usually do this. I only have the interest to scroll back a few posts when I have a new connection.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I SO wish there was something like a "do not like" feature to lock the ability so you don't accidentally like something!

I recently looked up a friends newish boyfriend and father to her yet to be born baby. I just wanted to know what he looked like and I ended up down a verrrry ugly rabbit hole after thinking his fb profile seemed shady. Now I know way more than I want to know.

Once looked up an old crush that I went on a couple of dates with. Couldn't find him. Did some digging and then found HER.

On occasion I've had a random person like a very old post of mine, meaning they were scrolling way back in time on me. Definitely creepy.

Just click the “like” button a second time and it’ll disappear.

Yes but by then they may have seen the notification. Or there's a chance I didn't even notice I hit "like" to begin with!

Anonymous wrote:I SO wish there was something like a "do not like" feature to lock the ability so you don't accidentally like something!

I recently looked up a friends newish boyfriend and father to her yet to be born baby. I just wanted to know what he looked like and I ended up down a verrrry ugly rabbit hole after thinking his fb profile seemed shady. Now I know way more than I want to know.

Once looked up an old crush that I went on a couple of dates with. Couldn't find him. Did some digging and then found HER.

On occasion I've had a random person like a very old post of mine, meaning they were scrolling way back in time on me. Definitely creepy.

Just click the “like” button a second time and it’ll disappear.

I SO wish there was something like a "do not like" feature to lock the ability so you don't accidentally like something!

I recently looked up a friends newish boyfriend and father to her yet to be born baby. I just wanted to know what he looked like and I ended up down a verrrry ugly rabbit hole after thinking his fb profile seemed shady. Now I know way more than I want to know.

Once looked up an old crush that I went on a couple of dates with. Couldn't find him. Did some digging and then found HER.

On occasion I've had a random person like a very old post of mine, meaning they were scrolling way back in time on me. Definitely creepy.

One ofmy guilty pleasures.

Oh I totally enjoy doing this.

I just did this yesterday on someone from high school. First in college she travels to the world's most obscure country. Gets married after a whirlwind courtship. Brings the guy back to the US and they have a child. He gets into med school and graduates, yay! Then he sort of disappears. Then she's posting about being a single mom and selling her house. I feel sad for her and creepy that I learned all this, and annoyed that this is how I spent an hour of my life.

I love a good social media deep dive. Did many during the pandemic especially of an old high school friend that went from being super hippy Obama volunteering to hard core republican/attended the Jan 6th resurrection. I accidentally liked a post of his and was mortified!!!!!!!!! But it was worth it, so many crazy anti vaccine posts and other rants mixed in with family drama.

Haha…I know I’m not the only one who does this: you connect on social media with a new friend, you get curious about who they were before you met, then you kind of disappear down the rabbit hole if someone else’s life. Does anyone get super paranoid about them knowing you did this? Like, what if I accidentally liked an ancient post, or, idk, just magicked my snooping into their brains somehow? I mean it’s actually why I often don’t deep dive, despite being curious about others. It just feels creepy, even though they put the info out there for all to see. But now I know my choir director used to quote 30 Rock out of the blue with no explanation and it’s like, why do I know this? Not really a question, just a funny observation.