Her best friend made up a woman named “Marie”, created an account, and allowed Fiona to log into it in the summer of 2016.
“It’s beyond embarrassing,” says the 21-year-old, “I find it really odd that people I’ve barely spoken to in two to three years can effectively get inside my head (and vice versa), through what they do on social media.” She describes her social media usage as “a big game”.įiona*, 22, shares a second account with her friends. Gemma* initially set up a second account for health and fitness photos, but now uses the profile to look at both of her ex-boyfriends and their new girlfriends. Because of this, some people prefer to have a second, alternate Instagram account for their stalking needs. Insta-peeking is a fine art (if your finger slips, you’re exposed). I realise the tactic of peeking is probably weirder than just looking in the first place, but it just means I feel more in control of how I’m coming across.” “I basically do it because I have a lot of social anxiety about seeming like an always-online, horny, lonely nerd waiting for fun parties to observe from a distance. If it was a fun-looking video posted 13 hours ago, I might go for the whole hog,” she explains. “If it was a photo of breakfast posted three minutes ago, I would pass. Jess’ peek-technique means she can decide whether it’s worthwhile to watch someone’s Story. “I am on Instagram a lot, and as a result started to worry that I was watching people’s new stories so quickly that I seemed more invested in their lives than I actually am,” says Jess, who explains that she personally always notices the people who regularly watch her stories within a few minutes of her posting them. How Insta-peeking looks in practice, with the Story on the right being lightly peeked upon This means she can see the gist of what is happening without her name showing up on a “Seen by” list. Because Instagram run stories back-to-back, Jess can then lightly swipe to see the first frame of the next person’s story, but not properly click on it. Instead of clicking someone’s Story and being exposed as having watched it, she clicks on another person’s Story, next to it. Jess*, 25, engages in a new phenomenon which she calls “Insta-peeking”. Various third-party apps claim to be able to do this, but users have their own techniques. The personal drama involved in posting and watching stories means that many people now want to get around Instagram’s “Seen by” list feature. “Skipping over someone’s story is suddenly a lot more powerful than not liking their pics.” “I skip the rest so that they know I don’t care about them,” he explains. Nathan is a 24 year old who deliberately only watches the first part of people’s Stories if he’s mad at them. There are an unending number of ways that Stories become political. “Once I wanted a screenshot of someone’s story, because the guy I liked was in it, and looking good, so I met up with a friend so she could take a photo of my screen,” says Pippa, who confesses to travelling for half an hour to get the candid shot.
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