Help! I Can't Stop Cyber-Stalking People From My Past

Daily social media scroll starting to spiral? Our advice columnist, therapist Minaa B., helps you get a handle on your habit.

- MINAA B.

Dear Minaa,

I'm lowkey obsessive about checking in on people I used to know. Every time I open up my phone for a good ol' mindless swipe 'n' scroll (which is, uh, often), I mentally run through a checklist of people I like to keep virtual tabs on. My newly married ex from college? On The List. My former middle school BFF who's now a mom of two and the proud new owner of a lake house? Also on The List. So are a slew of other now-strangers I haven't interacted with since Obama was in office.

Let me clarify that I don't truly care about these people, like my friend's mom who recently divorced her husband and married her much younger contractor. I'm really only invested in their posts-not their actual lives, which for the most part are super different from my own. If I'm not online, I'm not thinking about them at all.

Yet I just can't stop myself from checking up on them, even though I promise I don't actually want to know the name of my ex's new puppy (it's Ruby) or anything about my former cheer coach's MLM hustle. So my question is: What is going on and why can't I quit? Is it normal to know so many details of super-random people's day-to-days? I would love to physically and emotionally unfollow these folks and get back so much wasted time.