Before anyone says. I KNOW the answer just stop. I just can't seem to do it.
For reasons I can't get into, a friend I've been interested in in a while gave me his username and password for his Gmail. I can't get into why, but he reason is 1000% on both our parts.
Now I'm fucking obsessed with snooping through his Gmail even though that's not what it was intended for.
I have been able to find so much.
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everything he's googled for the past 8 years.
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everything he's seen on YouTube for the past 8 years.
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I know the websites he's signed up for.
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I know all of his social media, even the ones that aren't intended for public.
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I was even able to pull up his voice because of Google keeping recordings of when you say "ok Google"
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I can track his ongoing relationship this is phone and desk top.
The positives:
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I know he's into me because he's googled my name 200 times in the last 6 months trying to find me. Usually in spurts, like 30 times here, another 20 times there. I'm never hidden unless I want to be found.
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I know he's not really into porn. He does watch life stuff occasionally but I could only find 2 instances in the last 6 months and it's really mild, no nudity, but a lot of dancing.
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I have seen Google entries like "How to help a friend who is grieving" and lots of cooking recipes.
The negatives:
This guy is cute. Marathon runs, broad shoulders. He's always been polite and cordial with me. We play a game online together with some other people. This is the first time we've both been single, and we've been talking more.
I feel like he's a catch and I can see proof of interest. But it's driving me crazy. I can't concentrate properly on my work.
A lot of this is loneliness from Covid. I'm so self isolated right now. All of my friends are deathly afraid of Covid. I'm not talking to my family because of a huge fight (things will get better but they need to blow over). I'm so lonely and looking at these intimate details of his life, I feel more connected with him than I should or than I have any right to feel.
I cannot be honest with him about this - I've already gone so far that I would look crazy not only to him but everyone else in our community of online gamers.
I can't really refuse his email and password - I know it already! And asking him to change it and not tell me would be exceptionally weird given that we do for each other with our emails.
I've given him my email too but mine was a new one with none of this information attached. He didn't know that Google collected this much info on him. I know things in have no business knowing, like when he first googled "how to kiss a girl" to every game he's signed up for, to the contact info of his parents, to the name of his best friend from high school.
I can't deal with this. I wish I had never snooped - not that I'm anti snooping, but because it's destroyed my attention span in this lock down. I'm obsessed with finding out more to increase my chances of getting a guy who in many ways is really pure. There was a news story last year about a lot of gets getting abandoned, and he googled it. Then he googled how to adopt those cats, followed by Amazon orders for cat equipment and googling things like "how to properly pick up a cat" and "how should cats be groomed, and omg this one kills me "signs of depression in my cat". One day he clearly got drunk and one of the things he googled was "will my sister be ok if she marries her fiance?"
Like fuck this guy is so kind and I'm just a monster for looking through this garbage.
I want a chance with him, but I'm also a monster. I think he's really cautious of Covid and he's not asking me out (he Google's Covid cases a lot) because of it. He googled me fucking 200 times! That's not including the names of known family members and the exes of mine he knew by name. I think he was just trying to see how to connect to my profile in any way he could. I was so happy to see that I laughed out loud like a maniac in my apartment. I've been so lonely that it feels amazing to know that our dribbles of texting meant more to him too, and that it might be a pandemic that's getting in the way of this escalating. But as I saw how... Innocent this guy is, I just felt so fucking bad about myself.
What do I do? I've never been in any situation like this.
I do want to emphasize that I've had access to his Gmail on and off for about a year because of this game (we help each other cheat a little bit by staying logged in for each other essentially). If I just stopped reciprocating that everyone would find it weird and assume I was mad or intentionally messing things up. Given that it's a really really niche game (less than 4000 players), I can't say exactly why this arrangement suits us all within the game, but it does. So I can't just say "take it back! Change your password!" Etc.
I try to remember things from FDS like "If he wanted to, he would" (ask me out).
I don't know. This is so hard. I can't stop trying to look for more info. But I need to stop for my own sanity. And I'm not so sure how this should influence hoe I act with him.
[–]bye-raspberry 37 points38 points39 points (10 children) | Copy Link
[+]FDSxMuffinVSrat1 points [recovered] (9 children) | Copy Link
I know stopping is the right thing to do, and I want to, but I need a strategy that is more than just will power.
I cannot tell him to change his password. It lets me connect to his gamer account thing, which is how we help each other in the game. It would be the equivalent of a soccer player just saying "Trust me, I need to stop kicking the ball".
And the reason I can't let this team down is because they are literally the only people I talk to on some days. Covid is so so bad here. My friends and family refuse to see me. These people are honestly all I have, I'd be totally totally disconnected if I let them down for seemingly no reason (or worse! Explaining the reason to reveal what I've done).
[–]bye-raspberry 8 points9 points10 points (1 child) | Copy Link
[–]madamejesaistout 4 points5 points6 points (6 children) | Copy Link
[–]FDSxMuffinVSrat1 points [recovered] (5 children) | Copy Link
It is weird.
Friends... I literally have 2 outside of this group. One comes to see me once a week. The other is a racist, and as much as I try to push her away, I'm so lonely I just let her back in.
My family was a toxic situation. I always go back bit right now I'm very hurt so I really just can't.
[–]madamejesaistout 1 point2 points3 points (4 children) | Copy Link
[–]FDSxMuffinVSrat1 points [recovered] (3 children) | Copy Link
Covid
[–]madamejesaistout 1 point2 points3 points (2 children) | Copy Link
[–]FDSxMuffinVSrat1 points [recovered] (1 child) | Copy Link
Yeah. I'm friends with the group kind of outside of this. We've done activities together pre Covid, but this is the main thing we have in common. As we do the activity we talk about lots of stuff and we are friends. But the majority of the time we dedicate to each other is definitely through "playing".
Exciting the group or not playing with them does not seem like a valid option because then I'd be really lonely.
[–]Hhjjuuy 1 point2 points3 points (0 children) | Copy Link
[–]ohlizard 9 points10 points11 points (0 children) | Copy Link
[–]AyemHerselfFDS Specialist 14 points15 points16 points (4 children) | Copy Link
[–]FDSxMuffinVSrat1 points [recovered] (2 children) | Copy Link
He's not in a relationship as far as I can tell. He appears to be a single guy on Tinder, and while I'm not a fan of that, it's not like he's supposed to be loyal to me or someone.
[–]Summerisle7FDS Specialist 0 points1 point2 points (1 child) | Copy Link
[–]umbralgarden 6 points7 points8 points (0 children) | Copy Link
[–]vereelimee 5 points6 points7 points (11 children) | Copy Link
[–]FDSxMuffinVSrat2 points [recovered] (10 children) | Copy Link
He definitely does not know I'm snooping. He doesn't know.
I obviously don't want to reveal stuff in his search history more than I already have. But the vast majority of it is completely mundane things from years ago. 95% of it is games and sports related. If this were a set up, it was planned since he was 16, over 7 years before we had even met.
He knew I was with my ex. I only told him we broke up 2 months ago, I intentionally dropped it in a conversation.
I am assuming nothing has escalated because of Covid. And Covid is a good reason for things not to escalate at all.
I don't disagree that part of what I'm seeing is a fantasy - it's a snippet of his online life which doesn't tell you everything. But it tells you a lot in combination with what you can normally know about a person. But i agree, part of this could be seeing what I want to see in part.
I agree he doesn't love me, I'm not under that delusion, but I know at least that he was attracted to or interested in me for a time, plus we talked a lot over Covid.
I don't anticipate he will ask me out. I understand we won't be dating. There are things about him I don't like, even though there's a lot I do like. I have no reason to believe that he's mentally ill lol, but I do know the medication he's on because of acid reflux... (Why would someone plant that in their search history? A lot of stuff is so mundane and from years ago before he knew me).
Anyways. I did not post this because I think he's a HVM or LVM or to congratulate myself. I realize this is consuming me - likely because I'm already terribly lonely - and I don't know what to do and I need help.
Perhaps I didn't convey exactly how lonely I am and how this is a crutch or substitute for social interaction - I barely have any. I don't know where else to go to help myself stop doing this. I understand this is fucked up but I am only getting judged here without advice on how to stop.
I need more people in my life but fuck that's so hard right now.
[–]vereelimee 1 point2 points3 points (6 children) | Copy Link
[–]FDSxMuffinVSrat0 points [recovered] (5 children) | Copy Link
I mean, what community? It's posts on the internet. It's memes and doses of sympathy. Do you really feel connected to anyone here? It's pseudo interaction at best.
I haven't tried the discord, though I've tried to find the link before. It might be a good suggestion but I don't think anyone would suggest that it's a substitute for genuine human interaction.
[–]Summerisle7FDS Specialist 1 point2 points3 points (1 child) | Copy Link
[–]vereelimee 1 point2 points3 points (2 children) | Copy Link
[–]FDSxMuffinVSrat2 points [recovered] (1 child) | Copy Link
I literally did reach out in this post. I identified unhealthy behaviors, explained why I thought they were happening, realize that this is messed up and needs to be corrected. I explained why I can't remove the option - I'm lonely and these people are my only consistent people I see.
One person suggested substituting this with other hobbies, and it's a helpful partial solution that can help me to cut back.
But the rest of this has been riddled with judgement. I don't feel like anyone even believed me or cared that I feel alone. I just feel like everyone was pointing out that this is unhealthy and needs to change, which I already agree with, instead of really hearing why I feel so shitty about it.
Just because you ask for help, doesn't mean it's there. This isn't Hogwarts.
[–]vereelimee 0 points1 point2 points (0 children) | Copy Link
[–]Summerisle7FDS Specialist 0 points1 point2 points (2 children) | Copy Link
[–]FDSxMuffinVSrat0 points [recovered] (1 child) | Copy Link
Not really. I've basically been told just stop. I don't disagree that it would be healthier and I agree that I shouldn't be doing it.
Tbh I feel like people responding either don't understand me when I say I'm lonely or think it doesn't matter. It's not a justification, but I feel less lonely and more connected as I do it. The source of the issue is the loneliness - pre Covid I still had access and it never occurred to me to do this.
[–]Summerisle7FDS Specialist 0 points1 point2 points (0 children) | Copy Link