This document discusses online creeping and how to be a "good creeper". It outlines 4 stages of creeping on social media profiles, from looking at recent pictures to digging back 3-4 years. The author assigns students an online creeping exercise where they find facts about the author and classmates by searching social media and other online sources. Students report back their findings and sources. The exercise surprises students by what they discover, including inaccurate profile information and unknowingly being in a classmate's video. The author encourages creeping as a way to lay "trust and transparency" and mirrors the process used by journalists to find sources.

1. Chandra Clark
University of Alabama
AreYou a Good Creeper?
BEA IGNITE

2. ARE YOU A
GOOD
CREEPER?
Dr. Chandra Clark
The University
of Alabama

3. WE ALL CREEP ONLINE
„Creep on friends, family, famous people, and
people we don’t like
„Read comments to determine views
„Look for connections to siblings, exes, and friends
„Determine if they are cat or dog people
„Check out their children’s accomplishments for
comparison to self
„Love it, hate it, do it, fall victim to it

4. 1ST STAGE:
RECENT PICTURE LOOK
-Casual and
innocent
-Start with 1, then
click through entire
albums just to kill
time

5. 2ND STAGE:
THE TIMELINE SCROLL
-Common stalking
method
-Don’t like something
very old or they will
know you are creeping

6. 3RD STAGE:
PAST PROFILE PICTURES
-AKA “click and flick”
-Can span 5 years in
3 clicks
-High school
prom<wedding<child
ren<current

7. 4TH STAGE:
PICTURES FROM 3-4 YEARS
-War Zone Territory
-Don’t like or favorite
anything
-You are in so deep!
-Mirror selfies, past
relationships, pre-
hairless pictures

8. ONLINE CREEPING
ASSIGNMENT:
-Encouraging “Professor Creeping” shows
you have nothing to hide
-Understand they do it anyway
-Don’t be scared
-Lays a foundation of trust and transparency

9. TARGET: DR. CHANDRA
CLARK
Find 5 facts:
-Write out a couple of sentences about each
fact
-Write out where you found the fact and how
you got to that fact via search engine
-Give attribution to the source by posting the
name of the source plus the link

10. TARGET: 4 OTHER
CLASSMATES
Assign teams of five people
-Find 3 facts about each
-Write out a couple of sentences about each
fact
-Write out where you found the fact and how
you got to that fact via search engine
-Give attribution to the source by posting the
name of the source plus the link

11. RESULTS:
✓ Hammered in how to search for facts
✓ Discussed objectivity and looking at multiple
facts about a person before contacting for
interviews
✓ Credibility factor of sources
✓ Attribution is key to any fact or source
✓ Students discussed facts face to face in
groups

12. SURPRISES:
✓ One student had no digital footprint
✓ One student lied on her profiles
✓ One student shot video of another in their
group and found it in this exercise
✓ They realized how they can be sources for
each other
✓ Realized it’s the same process journalists go
through to find sources

13. CREEP ON!
You could earn
honors for being
Creep of the Week by
”College Times”