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"  Some people have a cursing jar. I have a cyber creeping jar\u2014and it&amp;#039;s up to $273. Exactly one month ago, I decided to make a career change and while I was at it, draft a laundry list of bad habits I vowed to break. First among them: My &amp;quot;cyber creeping&amp;quot; habit. I say &amp;quot;cyber creeping&amp;quot; as I felt it sounded a lot less, well, creepy, than calling it what it actually was: Cyber stalking. Let me pref this by first saying I am not a girl to drunk dial. I don&amp;#039;t rapid-fire text guys (in fact, I often forget to text them in the first place), and I don&amp;#039;t awake in the morning from a night out regretting any Facebook messages or emails I sent in the middle of the evening. So overall: I am pretty under control with my actions. But I creep. In fact, my friends have joked that my theme song is TLC&amp;#039;s 1994 hit song titled just that (&amp;quot;Creep&amp;quot;).  I blame this on the fact that I am quite good at it and as a damn good breaking news and entertainment reporter, have been required to dig dirt on persons of interest by profession. The problem with this, however, is that I can become obsessive about it without realizing (can&amp;#039;t we all?). My creeping included but was not limited to: Checking someone&amp;#039;s Facebook that I shouldn&amp;#039;t (ex-boyfriends, ex-crushes, former friends, frenemies, people I just don&amp;#039;t like), searching for people on Twitter I don&amp;#039;t even follow just to see what they&amp;#039;re doing (see above categories for who this includes), Googling people for non-work related purposes. Things that every girl has done, even if they aren&amp;#039;t always willing to admit it. It went so far that sometimes I&amp;#039;d forget the trivial shit I&amp;#039;ve viewed just ten minutes before and find myself re-checking things out of habit. So I decided to put a stop to it. Do I really need to know where my ex-boyfriend ate a burger last night? What my ex-BFF from three years ago thought of this weeks &amp;quot;Girls&amp;quot;? No. Of course not. I put an empty Honest Tea bottle in my room last month, and every time I &amp;quot;crept,&amp;quot; for four weeks, I had to put a dollar in the bottle. Every. Single. Time. I also never keep cash on me (it&amp;#039;s on the laundry list of bad habits to break), so this required a higher number of ATM trips than I was used to. Especially since the dollars bills went more quickly than I want to admit.  I honestly thought I might hit about $75. That&amp;#039;d be a normal, not THAT creepy amount. But $273!? That means I was a creep an average of 9.75 times per day!  The thing is, I think due to the rise of social media, &amp;quot;creeping&amp;quot; is inevitable. Whether it&amp;#039;s through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, whatever, we find ways to get the knowledge we want. But what is just utililizing the tools in front of us for entertainment purposes and what is downright obsessive?  Even though my creep number has me hanging my head (9.75! Someone take my iPhone away!), I can&amp;#039;t say I&amp;#039;ll really stop anytime soon. It&amp;#039;s just too addictive of a habit. I may have to switch those singles for fives to really break the bank as punishment. At least some charity will be happy.  Are you a cyber creep? And would you ever try a cyber creeping jar?  Want more stories from Carson? Follow her on Twitter. Photo Credit: iStockphoto "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/news/a12128/cyber-stalking/>