All We Do is "Stalking" Studying New Forms of Reading in Social Networks

A particular use of the term "stalking" is emerging in social networks to indicate a wide range of reading practices aimed to gain insight on a subject. As a new type of reading, "stalking" does not always have a negative connotation and it is not limited to the personal sphere but ranging from ludic to professional aims. Considering the preliminary results of a case study in the READ-IT project, this contribution wishes to engage the hypertext research community in considering "stalking" as a type of reading activity emerging from the unique features of social networks related both to "stalkers" (as hypertext readers), and to the "stalked" (as a type of contents) within the context of social networking platforms (as a type of medium and environment for reading).