I don’t usually follow people on social media platforms; I prefer browsing the Explore or Discover pages.
For many years, I have been only recommended content I’m interested in, like memes, cat videos, and self-care products. Recently I started getting really weird recommendations.
When I go to the Explore section, I sometimes see a picture from my day. If I went to the grocery store and looked at ketchup, what I saw is posted as a picture by a random account. If I saw a dog outside, there’s a picture of it from the same angle I saw it from posted by another random account. It’s not the same account posting them, and the accounts aren’t fake either. They’re active albeit small content creators who post their daily lives, their pets, their meals, outfit, just your average daily life blogger type stuff. It’s just one picture on their whole feed that seems like it was taken by my eyes.
I went ahead and DM’ed some of the accounts asking if they took the picture, and they said yes. I asked if they live where I do, and they said they were either passing by or on a trip. It was weird, but I couldn’t do anything about it. What would I even do, call the cops?
Soon after, the posts started getting personal. It would be a part of my day, and the caption of the photo would be exactly what I was thinking at that moment. “Gotta buy more milk”, “Hmmm a cantaloupe… Can’t elope! Hehehehe”. My exact thoughts, however nonsensical. No one in the comments questioned the poster.
Things started getting really out of hand when the posts were of the inside of my house. When I asked the people posting them where they took the photo, they said it was their niece’s house, their great granddaughter’s house, something of that sort. Weird, my only living relatives are my adoptive parents, and even they don’t visit much. I’ve never bothered looking for my biological family. So no chance of any visits from them.
I’m busy with life these days and check my Explore less. I just use socials for DMs. The weird posts were at the back of my mind, but I was too busy to look into it further or be scared. Maybe it was just coincidences, maybe there was a similarly decorated house somewhere nearby. It doesn’t bother me as much as it first did, and I still see a post or two, but they are few and far apart.
I’ve continued DM-ing the accounts, about 7-8 of them. They’re really nice and tell me they’d love to meet me someday, but they are on the other side (of the country? State? I don’t know.). We bonded over our similar hair and skin problems and chronic illnesses, and they give me advice sometimes.
I still don’t know why or how these random people took or posted these pictures, but atleast I made a few new friends. Maybe we really will meet someday, they seem interesting and relatable.