I have picked up this habit of searching for people on the internet to know more about them. I don't mean celebrities/famous people, just normal people I meet in person. After I interviewed with Microsoft, I tried to find out more about people who interviewed me. I was surprised when I found out that one of them had written several books about Windows Sockets Programming / Windows Networking. Then, as I started to meet more people at work, I started searching to find if they have really acheived something :P Gradually, I fell into the habit of searching about someone right after I meet them for the first time. Recently, I was able to find out a lot of info about a person within 5 min after I met her - school, interests, achievements, facebook/orkut/linkedin profile, few photographs, videos.....
Then I started wondering... Is it rude to do this? Am I intruding in their privacy? Do they want me to find all these information just because they have posted it online? Have I become a stalker?? Wait, aren't stalkers obsessed about someone/something and follows them continuously? I decided to search for "stalker" on wikipedia. Looks like there is no clear definition for "stalking". Here is what wiki says -
Stalking is a controversial pejorative term applied to the behaviour of individuals (and perhaps to bodies of persons) towards others which has no universally accepted definition. The difficulties associated with precisely defining this term (or defining it at all) are well documented. [4] It seems to have been first applied to the harassment (in a general sense) of celebrities by strangers who were described as being obsessed. This usage of the word appears to have been coined by the tabloid press in the United States[1] and has been adopted as a term of art in psychology and, in some jurisdictions, as the name of a criminal offence.
It has been applied to the obsessive following, observing, or contacting of another person, or the obsessive attempt to engage in any of these activities. This includes following the person to certain places, to see where they live or what the person does on a daily basis, it also includes seeking and obtaining the person's personal information in order to contact him or her; e.g. looking for his or her details on computers, electoral rolls, personal files and other material containing the person's private information without his or her consent.
Who cares if this is stalking or not. It helps me find out more about a person and I am happy to take advantage of the Big Bad Web!! If you don't want others to find out something, think twice before uploading anything. Now, I understand why a lot of bloggers remain anonymous and sites like this exist to determine if the blogger is male/female (I tried 5 of my friend's blog on this site and it gave me a result that all 5 were written by females - 0% accuracy)!!
Then I started wondering... Is it rude to do this? Am I intruding in their privacy? Do they want me to find all these information just because they have posted it online? Have I become a stalker?? Wait, aren't stalkers obsessed about someone/something and follows them continuously? I decided to search for "stalker" on wikipedia. Looks like there is no clear definition for "stalking". Here is what wiki says -
Stalking is a controversial pejorative term applied to the behaviour of individuals (and perhaps to bodies of persons) towards others which has no universally accepted definition. The difficulties associated with precisely defining this term (or defining it at all) are well documented. [4] It seems to have been first applied to the harassment (in a general sense) of celebrities by strangers who were described as being obsessed. This usage of the word appears to have been coined by the tabloid press in the United States[1] and has been adopted as a term of art in psychology and, in some jurisdictions, as the name of a criminal offence.
It has been applied to the obsessive following, observing, or contacting of another person, or the obsessive attempt to engage in any of these activities. This includes following the person to certain places, to see where they live or what the person does on a daily basis, it also includes seeking and obtaining the person's personal information in order to contact him or her; e.g. looking for his or her details on computers, electoral rolls, personal files and other material containing the person's private information without his or her consent.
Who cares if this is stalking or not. It helps me find out more about a person and I am happy to take advantage of the Big Bad Web!! If you don't want others to find out something, think twice before uploading anything. Now, I understand why a lot of bloggers remain anonymous and sites like this exist to determine if the blogger is male/female (I tried 5 of my friend's blog on this site and it gave me a result that all 5 were written by females - 0% accuracy)!!
P.S: The picture in this blogpost is nothing more than a picture!
7 comments:
"Gradually, I fell into the habit of searching about someone right after I meet them for the first time" - Please elaborate, this sends multiple msgs..!! :D
so.. the guys who follow ur blog/updates on facebook or orkut r stalkin u eh...?? :P
Dittoing Harish's comments :D Looks like the NN behind the site is not as good.... or is it just that it didn't have Indian bloggers in its training set? And stalking is when you become obsessive about finding about a person. There is a thin line between being curious and stalking. But curiosity killed the cat!
I do it all the time da.. whenever i read some blog, i try to find more about that person!
until i saw your blog, i never had any guilty feeling.. no, not even now!
By the way, who is that person interviewed you, who wrote 5 books? charles petzold?!?!
Harish, nee edho kevalama yosikare nu theriyudhu... but enna nu puriyala... Alpine, neeyuma?
@Amith, do you really Google my name and check out my facebook/orkut profiles, read my blogs etc... If yes, then yes, you are stalking :P
@Alpine - I know that I'm just curious.. but when I find out more than I intended to (esp about girls) I feel a bit guilty :P
@ Gopi - No, he is not an official MS employee :D Its the first author here - http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/authors/auth5726.aspx
naan correcta yosika thaan un kita explanation kekuren..!! unnoda nenappu enga poguthu..! :D
anyways, c after reading a particular blog thr is nothn wrong in knwn about a person, stalkn is a different level, its an obsession as mentioned by alpine..!! if u goto anyone's profile and find all the details and even more than wht u wanted to knw, its nothing wrong..!! the difference comes when u constantly visit the same person's profile say continuously- like 4-5 times a week, or a month, then yes u r stalking..!! :D
Again, dittoing Harish's comments :D Further, if you get to find out about a person from their public profile without any effort, then I guess you should just lite it :) For they would've put up that info for the world to know. So you knowing it shouldn't make you guilty, unless you try to pry off more info from what you see on the profile by asking them pointed questions or doing some serious stalking. Btw, what info about girls made you this guilty? :P Jus' curious!!
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