Just a click away: From your social media account

therapuss & callherdaddy, BeReal Editor & Swig Editor — April 22, 2025

Internet Stalking: Dubbed as "insanity" by "insansome, researching a person on the internet merely aims to connect with them parasocial and should be embraced. (Illustrated by therapuss & callherdaddy)

Journalism ethics debates have sparked across the country. Many have dubbed proactive journalists conducting comprehensive, in-depth research as "invasive" internet "stalkers;" in actuality, they take high-stakes and imperative investigative journalism. Internet "stalking," a misnomer for investigative journalism, should not be condemned but rather commended as an empathetic pursuit to thoroughly understand someone and develop a parasocial relationship with them, utilizing key critical thinking skills.

The Damut has practiced and defended its vigorous investigative journalism tactics. From hard-hitting sports articles, well researched through MaxPreps, to in-depth editorials, backed up by details from a person's Instagram Highlights (or lack thereof) and parents' Facebook, the Damut goes above and beyond to ensure accurate and detailed reporting.

The internet enables innate human curiosity, fulfilled through digital research. Practicing "normalcy" by rejecting internet stalking ignores the biological and philosophical traits that make up humanity — forcing oneself into intellectual confinement in the digital age. While curiosity killed the cat, the cat did not have the opposable thumbs to scroll through Highlights without accidentally clicking an emoji Highlight trap. Those who don't internet stalk are peculiar, anomalies of the human race, and would be subject to witch trials if they existed alongside the internet.

In modern linguistics, internet stalking merely aims to create a bibliography about someone, compiled from a variety of sources — a more reliable and less impoverished Wikipedia. It reveals all the pertinent must-know information: someone's favorite color, hobbies, date of birth, zodiac sign, and the details of their 2017 summer Cancun vacation. They say the eyes are the window to the soul, but nothing offers more insight into an individual than family photos spanning back a decade, clips from their elementary piano recital, or their recent family Christmas card, where they look unironically dashing in their white button-up. A true veteran in internet staking could even write a PhD about their victim — or rather, subject.

By developing a parasocial relationship with their stalkees, stalkers form a no-stakes relationship with them. Discard awkward talking stages, sliding into DMs, or eternally humiliating conversations where one gets blown off; the same result — and dopamine — are released without any chance of rejection by stalking. One-on-one conversations hold no candle to the intimate details of one's life story memorialized on ancient, elementary-era social media artifacts they themselves might have forgotten about.

On the World Wide Web, everything is public domain; all internet stalkers merely browse the Internet as everyone else does with a specific goal in mind. By definition, the internet interconnects people; it is merely a civic duty and unspoken rule of the nonexistent social contract to participate in its purpose. Internet "stalkers" are simply standard internet users.

At Oxford, this in depth research supports key academic skills such as synthesizing or critically analyzing different sources of evidence. At a college preparatory academy, internet stalking is a key extracurricular activity for students to partake in to reinforce academic pursuits, and later stand out as a college applicant, showcasing well-roundness and academic strengths.

While some dub internet stalking as creepy or even downright disturbing, researching is purely harmless, done as a hobby for a subject to never find out — as long as a stalker never blows their cover. Studies have found the intensity of the practice, and high IQ levels needed to track someone down on a variety of platforms preserves cognitive function by exercising the brain. Internet stalking is a form of proactive medication.

In today's culture, comprised so heavily of the internet and digital media, internet stalking is inevitable. The term must be openly embraced to decrease the stigma surrounding hardworking "stalkers." Everyone must partake in exploring the depths of a person's mind without ever having to speak to them, understanding them on a deeper level to normalize and accept basic human nature. Until then, websites must also take initiative and force all users to agree to the possibility of stalking — and highly encourage engaging in the practice — in the terms and conditions all will willfully agree to.