It started in the beginning of April. It was late at night, and I was swiping mostly left on the famous dating app Binder. One guy sent a message inviting me to experience his “enormous talent”. Rolling my eyes to yet another tempting offer, I unmatched him. Bored and tired from these original solicitations, I decided to watch another Chelsea Handler comedy special online and go to sleep.
In the morning, when I opened Facebook I saw a new message from a person I didn’t recognise. “Hi hotstuff, did u see what I sent you yesterday? I’m free toni8, let’s meet! And here’s a preview pic to help ur imagination ;)”. Gross! Oh god I haven’t even have my coffee yet, how the hell did this guy find my personal Facebook account? Then I remembered, that for some reason, we have mutual friends. He must have searched my name and found me. I blocked and deleted the “talented” guy, thinking this is surely a one time thing. But it wasn’t, it was only the beginning. Suddenly, I started receiving messages from other guys: “hey, remember we dated that one time a decade ago? Let's stay in touch, here’s a pic in case you forgot ;)". An hour later: "hey, remember we talked a couple of years ago in a pub? Let's hang out, k?". Pissed off and annoyed I decided to close my Facebook account, I might not remember anyone’s birthday anymore, but I can’t handle this shit. But then the next hour, I received a message in my Gmail inbox. Then another message on Twitter and WhatsApp. They just kept coming, like zombies “haunting” me – “ghosting” was no longer a thing, apparently. Guys who I swiped right and left on, dated or even just talked to once in the past found all my online accounts, even my Hotmail. “THAT’S IT! I am deleting all my accounts!!! I’m going offline, they can’t find me here!”. Disconnected from everything, I sat in my living room and felt relieved. No more intrusions, I thought with a smile. And just when I was enjoying the silence, I heard a knock on the door...
