honestly, i think the technology is new, but this stuff has been going on a long time among a disturbingly large segment of the population.

the tech tracking, the social media logins/sharing/spying were novel as they came online for sure, but that cohort of people have been around for as long as ive been around. (im old).

if anything is truly new is that web 2.0 has made the sharing of the stories (and tactics) of control more common. it used to just be advice columns where someone anonymously wrote in to find out if some completely deranged controlling behavior (my spouse checks the mileage on my car, i cannot have my own checking account, i am not allowed to see friends and family without spouse) was normal.

nowadays, the spying is easier to hide from the public so of course a freak can let their spouse out of their physical sight, because they're air tagged or whatever, and they can easily pressure them to take a video call and reveal their surroundings.

people get caught up in the large institutional abuse of the tech panopticon, but forget fascism is also about empowering the mini tyrants of households to enforce its rules.

I live in a very conservative area, so sometimes it seemed like infidelity was treated as more evil than domestic abuse. My grandpa lived in a mostly loveless marriage where the wife abused my mom (her step daughter) and took advantage of the relatively little money he made, but people always admired that he stuck with that marriage until he died.

like tracking each others locations always

Excuse me, what??

I've noticed it too. Maybe it's a knock on effect of the atomization that got supercharged by covid. All the things making it hard to find a relationship also conditioning people to be very paranoid about losing it?

Don't get me wrong infidelity is always shitty behavior

Usually. Not always