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Permanent Tracking

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Clarissa

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OK, I had no idea people did this. It’s beyond bizarre. 17 years with my husband, and I can’t imagine him requesting to have access to my location at all times (or at any time). Obviously, I would not agree because playing into a person’s neurosis is not a good idea.

The author of the article actually accesses an app before going to bed every night to spy on the location of several people she knows. And not one of them cares enough about this clearly unwell person to deny her access. That she’s on anti-anxiety meds and sleeping aids is a given, and nobody can be bothered to help her. That’s why she tried to track everybody so obsessively. She knows people around her don’t give a crap about her.

13 responses to “Permanent Tracking”

  1. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “this clearly unwell person”

    I thought you were exaggerating and then I read: “My boyfriend is right next to me, the app confirms.” and stopped reading and just kind of stared into space for a half a minute or so trying to…. absorb that…. and understand why someone would share that kind of information with a bunch of strangers….

    Later though it picks up with one of the funniest things I’d read in days: “Basil, it warned her, had been “left behind.”

    I imagined poor, poor Basil (a basset hound in this imagining) alone at the vets amidst little piles of clothes from the raptured vet and assistants wondering about how he was going to face the Anti-christ on his own…. (if you know you know, as they say).

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      This is somebody who is in the throes of a deep neurosis that’s caused by a lack of boundaries. Humans need to know where the ego ends and the rest of the world begins. But we have created a situation where putting a barrier to an ego’s expansion is seen as that ego’s violation. As a result, the psyche is spread so thin that it shreds under the smallest stress.

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      1. methylethyl Avatar
        methylethyl

        I get tetchy when someone just asks “what are you reading?” (none of your damn business unless I want to tell you. now go away because *I’m reading* and *you’re interrupting*).

        Giving my family and friends a tracking beacon to follow my every move… huh. The thing is, I do actually trust them that much. I have very boring habits and they would not do anything sinister with the intel. We trust each other with all sorts of far more sensitive info. Just… why? We’ve all got better things to do than check where people are grocery shopping and how often. Are people that bored?

        One of my siblings does this for temporary stints when they are on the road (often traveling between states), so that the rest of us will know where on the interstate they are, and what to report as last known location if they disappear. It seems fairly unnecessary, but we play along.

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        1. cliff arroyo Avatar
          cliff arroyo

          “does this for temporary stints when they are on the road (often traveling between states)”

          That makes some sense though I’d expect the traveller to suggest/request it (Can you track me while I’m on the road from Tuesday to Friday?)

          But even in that case continuing it afterward would be…. weird.

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          1. methylethyl Avatar
            methylethyl

            Not a bad thing for multi-day car treks, just as disaster insurance. But mostly unnecessary, kind of like keeping a blanket and a jug of water in the car. Have needed those. Once. In almost thirty years of driving.

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            1. Avi Avatar
              Avi

              “Have needed those. Once. In almost thirty years of driving.”

              Yeah, but better to have them even when you don’t need them, than not to have them when you do.

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              1. methylethyl Avatar
                methylethyl

                Yes. No. Maybe. Would probably have worked out OK anyway, and there’s an opportunity cost to the space they take up. I no longer have the blanket in the car, now that I live in a warmer climate. But it was handy that one time someone else borrowed my car and got it stuck in a snowbank, in a blizzard, for a few hours.

                But… I would not have ventured out in that weather for any reason.

                Liked by 1 person

              2. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                I understand people wanting to keep track in extreme situations. But checking on your friends’ location as a bedtime ritual – that’s neurosis.

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  2. methylethyl Avatar
    methylethyl

    I knew this was a thing for people tracking their kids’ whereabouts. I had no idea grown adult people did it for any reason other than finding out if their lovers are cheating on them…

    Using it to check up on friends as though they are lost children… that’s perverse.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      How do you even formulate such a request to a friend?

      “Hey, wouldn’t it be great if we always knew each other’s exact locations?”

      “Erm, if by great you mean weird, then yes.”

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      1. methylethyl Avatar
        methylethyl

        “Hi, I would like to stalk you electronically. Would you like to stalk me?”

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  3. el Avatar
    el

    Have you seen this from 2 days ago?

    French police arrest a 26-year-old Russian-Ukrainian man on bomb-making charges…
    The man was badly burned after an explosion on Tuesday in a hotel room in Roissy-en-France, near Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport.

    Investigators found evidence of equipment and materials intended to be used for bomb-making in his room, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said.

    Guns and false passports were also found, according to French media reports.
    …
    He is reportedly a Russian-speaker from the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce5564x3167o

    The reply came 7 hours ago:

    Russia Detains French Citizen for Gathering Military Information

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  4. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “understand people wanting to keep track in extreme situations. But checking on your friends’ location as a bedtime ritual”

    Isn’t the whole point that these damaged individuals can’t distinguish between ‘extreme situation’ and ‘bedtime ritual’

    Everything is equally important to them which is…. sad and disturbed.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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