We've all been there; stressed out, running around a mall bumping into annoyed and rushed strangers, with no specific goal in mind other than the fact that you have to find the perfect gift and you have to find it now. You know that you should have decided what gift to get before coming here, and no matter how hard you think, you end up with nothing, zip, zero ideas.

Whether your gift is for a friend or a family member, sometimes you just need a little push in the right direction, and that's where a bit of friendly and innocent social media stalking comes into the picture. Now, of course "stalking" someone to be able to find them a gift may sound a bit harsh, but the truth is that a lot of us are already doing it. In fact, a recent study made by Crowdtap showed that 64% of all holiday shoppers use social media platforms to find the perfect presents for their peers. This means that almost two-thirds of us already secretly stalk our friends' and family members' various social media profiles, looking for that one perfect gift.

Over the past few years it's gotten much easier to take a sneak peek into other peoples' lives, thanks to our uncensored social media updates, but how do you go about finding gift ideas on social media? The first and most popular social media platform to social media stalk friends and family on is Facebook. Granted the person you are about to stalk is an avid user, you can find out a lot about them from their Facebook profile. You can find out about their interests, what activities they enjoy, where they like to hang out outside of work, which mutual friends you share, and what they themselves like to post and share with their friends.

If your friend or family member posted a picture or a link with the caption "This is what I want for Christmas," you'd be in luck and there would be no need to look further. But if they didn't, a simple search through this person's interests and posts should give you a good idea of what they are into, hence narrowing down your shopping list.

One of Facebook's newer features is the Graph Search bar. This improved search feature is helpful in navigating Facebook by offering the user a number of different search options. By simply opening the Graph Search drop-down menu, you see options such as "Music my friends like", "Movies my friends like" and "Games my friends like". It is therefore very helpful in assisting you to find the right gift. Another great advantage of the new Graph Search is that it understands natural language. You can type the way you think in the search field and Facebook will decipher it for you, making it very easy to use and even easier to find exactly what you're looking for.

Another social media platform that is helpful for gift idea stalking is Instagram. Instagram has become more and more popular over the past couple of years and lets users upload photos instantly from their everyday life, straight from their smart phones. This means that you can get a unique insight into what your friends and family members enjoy doing. For example, if your friend is constantly uploading photos of him- or herself hiking or camping, a good guess would be that they enjoy spending time outdoors. With just a few simple clicks you have narrowed down your shopping list to gears for outdoors activities and a new practical water bottle or backpack might be just what they would appreciate.

Pinterest is one of the most useful tools for gathering gift ideas. This social media platform lets you "pin" your favorite things to different boards which you create and categorize yourself. If the person you are trying to stalk has a Pinterest account, it's easy to find out what he or she likes by simply clicking on the appropriate board, making it even easier for you since the user already divided their pins into categories. If you're really lucky, your friend or family member has even created a board named "Things I Want." Pinterest is also a great platform for stealing ideas from other "pinners," especially when it comes to DIY projects. Just search for an item or category in the search bar and prepare yourself to get inspired. Now, you might be thinking "wouldn't it be easier if we all just still wrote lists to Santa that we then shared with each other?" Well, yes it would, but where's the fun in all of that?