Media

Khulood Al-Qashteenee

The Scroll, The Check, The Cycle: When Curiosity Becomes Compulsive Monitoring in Social Media Culture

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Khulood Al-Qashteenee is a 2026 Professional Communications graduate from Toronto Metropolitan University with a strong interest in digital culture, user behaviour, and how everyday online practices shape perception. Her capstone project was inspired not only by academic inquiry, but also by personal observation of how easily routine social media habits, often seen as harmless or entertaining, can become repetitive and emotionally consuming. This perspective informs her approach to research, grounded in both critical analysis and lived awareness.

Alongside her studies, Khulood works as a daycare teacher, where she values creativity, patience, and meaningful connection. Working with children has strengthened her ability to think imaginatively and communicate with intention, skills that influence both her academic work and her approach to storytelling. Through her work, she aims to encourage more thoughtful and self-aware engagement with digital environments.

Connect with Khulood on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/khulood-al-qashteenee-6449941ab/

This research examines how online stalking behaviors have become normalized within everyday social media use, shifting from actions once considered intrusive to practices now framed as routine. Through a qualitative thematic analysis of publicly available online discourse, this study explores how users describe, justify, and emotionally experience behaviors such as profile checking, activity monitoring, and interpreting digital signals.

The findings reveal that platform design and user language work together to normalize continuous monitoring, while online communities, particularly on platforms like TikTok, reinforce and circulate these behaviors as socially acceptable. At the same time, these practices are linked to patterns of compulsive checking, emotional dependence, and heightened anxiety.

By connecting everyday user experiences with existing research on digital surveillance and emotional regulation, this project highlights the gap between normalized behavior and its impact. It ultimately calls for greater awareness of how seemingly harmless online habits can shape emotional well being and communication in digital environments.

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