how to find a specific party on social media?

April 5, 2021 8:30 AM

I need tips and advice how to find a specific party on social media. More after the jump -

Back story: neighbor from hell has a court order banning him from renting his house out for parties (sigh). Yesterday there was an organized party. Officials didn't arrive in time to gather evidence. Neighbor claims it was his grandson's birthday party (a lie he's used before).

I'd like to locate pictures of the party on social media to fish out who the birthday boy was. Here's where I need help.

What I know for the search:
- party was yesterday (so great, it will be at the top of feeds, right?)
- where it was
- party-goers in their late teens (15-17)

I tried searching instagram (is that what kids that age would use?) with party/birthday/location hashtags (are those good hashtags to use?), but nothing came up (I'll recognize the house and the party when I see pictures).

Any ideas and clues how to find the party pictures online? (sorry if I sound clueless! I'm not an avid social media user)

Thanks!!!

posted by mirileh to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

If you move quickly, you can check snap chat- Using the map feature, you can find public videos by location.
posted by Torosaurus at 8:56 AM on April 5, 2021 [2 favorites]

Lots of teens are on Tiktok these days — check there! I’m not sure whether it’s easy to search by location though.
posted by mekily at 9:14 AM on April 5, 2021

Take a picture of where you are and act like you're uploading it to insta. You'll see some options under location, try searching by those. That's how I'd normally tag a location, if I even did. When I was frequently partying, it was very rare that I'd use a hashtag. They're not cool.
posted by coldbabyshrimp at 11:49 AM on April 5, 2021

I've read that kids these days sometimes create a new Instagram account for each party & to get into the party you need to follow the account. This is a way of having Facebook Event functionality without being on Facebook, and without having your post be searchable in the way you're describing (you don't want every teen in the city showing up and having your party get shut down by the cops). It makes it kind of exclusive because you have to know about the specific account name somehow.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:03 PM on April 5, 2021

And that method could conceivably be used on TikTok or elsewhere as far as I can tell.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:04 PM on April 5, 2021