Gossip is a huge part of teenagers’ lives. Gossip helps students to stay awake and motivated during the long and boring school day. Thanks to social media, gossip is easier than ever to find, especially on apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.

According to the report “Teens and Social Media” by the Pew Research Center, about 97 percent of teenagers use social media regularly, and nearly half say they are online “almost constantly.” This is because these apps provide spaces for teens to stay connected with friends and to share and learn about gossip.

To get the best gossip, sometimes you need to stalk your friends – and your frenemies. By stalking, I don’t mean being a creep. Rather, I mean looking at people’s social media accounts and searching for details that you might otherwise miss. For the purpose of this article, “stalking” means to go through someone’s posts, stories, comments, and followers carefully to gather information instead of just casually scrolling. (I am obviously not talking about the illegal and scary definition of stalking.)

Why do you sometimes need to stalk people on social media?

Stalking allows you to get information you want while remaining anonymous. Since users never get to find out who stalks their Instagram account, it’s a simple way to get gossip without people seeing how much attention you are really giving them.

Benefits of stalking others:

1. You can stay informed about drama.

Gossip spreads way faster on the internet than in real life, making it easier for people to learn about what’s happening around them. There are breakups and secret couples. You can discover this stuff by going through people’s Instagram profiles and, for example, checking to see if a couple has untagged each other on their bios. There are also friends who get in arguments. You can even find out who unfollowed and blocked somebody else. Knowing these details gives you a clearer picture of who’s dating, who’s breaking up, and who is fighting. Stalking helps you read between the lines of social interactions.

2. You get extra evidence about and context behind gossip.

Online gossip often comes with information that makes it easier to understand and share. Screenshots of chats, stories, and pictures can provide better context that helps explain fights, breakups, or even secret romances. When stalking, we zoom in on all the pictures just to get to every detail that we might miss at first glance.

For example, there was a girl who posted stories mocking me, and my friends took screenshots as proof. These screenshots gave me solid material to back me up when I confronted this girl.

3. Gossip adds flavor to a boring school life.

School life can feel boring and repetitive, but gossip adds excitement to everyday conversations. Since everyone can be in a different close friend list and know different people in school, at the end of the day, everyone might have different tea to share. This keeps your group chat active and entertaining.

For example, you can talk together about who’s dating, who’s fighting, or who’s posting shady stories. Moreover, gossip can even lead to confrontations and arguments, like when I confronted the girl after my friends showed me her stories mocking me. Exchanging this information makes you more involved in the conversation with your friends and gives you something to look forward to during the day.

Friends who stalk for you

Blocking is a way of showing anger, but sometimes you still want to know what your enemy is posting. In those situations, that’s when your friends make their move to keep you updated and keep up the jerks on your block list. This can help you stay up to date on all the gossip without you getting caught. This way, you don’t need to follow people you hate since you are still able to get all the info you want about their social media activity.

Additionally, if you have a crush and you are too shy to act or if you want to act nonchalant, your friends can help you gather information so you can learn about your crush’s hobbies, personality, and other information about their lives so you can talk to them more confidently.

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Stalking social media accounts can get you useful information. You should get into the habit of enlarging every single post and story you care about to look closely for any hints of gossip. Finally, it is best to have a friend that can do it for you when you can’t. You might find some surprises in your social life.