Why Do We Think It’s Okay to Invade Strangers’ Privacy?

A Twitter thread, an airplane romance, and the value of anonymity

Last week, Rosey Blair, a writer and self-described “drama queen deep in the heart of Texas,” boarded a plane and began a Twitter thread that changed her life — and the lives of the two people sitting in front of her. Rosey and her boyfriend asked a woman to switch seats so they could sit together. “We made a joke that maybe her new seat partner would be the love of her life,” she wrote. Then, it actually happened.

As it unfolded, Blair began posting a series of tweets and photos about how the woman struck up a conversation with her seatmate, how they appeared to be flirting, and even snippets of their conversation. The thread collected hundreds of thousands of likes, comments, and retweets, and it quickly catapulted Blair, her boyfriend, and the man, Euan Holden — since nicknamed #planebae — into quasi-stardom.

But not the woman who changed seats.

In a (recently deleted) follow-up tweet video after her thread went viral, Blair and her boyfriend briefly addressed the status of the as-yet-unknown woman.

“So, we don’t have the woman’s permish yet, so — ”