In what is only the latest example of a relatively recently emerged genre of viral video, yet another man has been put on blast by a woman on TikTok who believes he is cheating on his partner. In this case, the man was on board a United Airlines flight from Houston to New York and was chatting with a woman at the airport bar. They continued talking on the plane, switching seats so they could do so, all the while being observed by Caroline, who recorded them at multiple points throughout the flight.


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In a second video, Carolina revealed that the pair ended up making out and took it to the plane bathroom, presumably to become newly-minted members of the mile high club. Because the internet loves outrage and armchair investigating, the initial comments on the video, which now has over 30 million views, were overwhelmingly negative, condemning the man for cheating and going to great lengths to identify not only him but also his wife so that people could contact her and let her know, including posting her full name and workplace in the comments.


For anyone confused, this is doxxing, even if you’re doing it out of what you think is kindness. As the initial furor died down, many online commenters pointed out this very fact, along with the fact that we don’t know anything about this man’s relationship — for all we know, it could be open, or they could be separated. Even if he were cheating on his wife, imagine learning that from a viral video, or from hundreds of complete strangers messaging you on Facebook to point you in the direction of said viral video?



Commenters who think about things more deeply pointed out that this was merely another form of entertainment, with the added bonus of being a great example of surveillance culture: Who needs the government to monitor everything we do when people are so willing to surveil each other?


The glee that many people seemed to take from witnessing what they believed to be the breakdown of a complete stranger’s marriage is genuinely bizarre. Are there not enough fictional stories to keep you entertained? They just dropped a new season of The Bear — can’t you gawk at the fictional pain of a bunch of chefs from Chicago instead of the potentially very real pain of a woman in Texas?


If that isn’t real enough for you, watch Bravo.