On social media, hunting for clues about other peoples’ lives is increasingly popular – and risky
They’ve broken up. I know they’ve broken up because I haven’t seen him on her Instagram Stories for weeks now, and she normally doesn’t go two days without zooming in on his moustache or snapping him with his hashtag pint. OK, there are still photos of him on her main feed – granted, sure, that could mean they’re still together. But there, look, see: she’s just posted her dinner. Steak tacos. He’s a vegetarian, remember? She never ate meat when she was with him.
Above is the shameful inner monologue of an amateur internet detective or, to put it less glamorously, me when I’m snooping into the (sort-of) private lives of my Instagram friends. This isn’t something I do deliberately, but rather a thought process that arises as my thumb undertakes its scrolling exercises at the end of the day. Psychologists recognise that humans are compelled to seek patterns; something inside us seems to love to hunt for clues, too. The popularity of mystery novels and true crime documentaries has long been a testament to our desire to play detective, but it’s the internet that’s transformed us all into amateur investigators.
