This is sad, tragic, and horrific. My heart goes out to all of the families involved. I hope my comments regarding this situation don’t read as insensitive, but it’s also a fascinating example of our relationship with media.
By now you’ve likely seen the headlines that two twelve year old girls plotted to kill a classmate, stabbing the victim nineteen times. What wasn’t immediately clear was the motive for this heinous act. Today we’ve heard word that the two girls who committed this crime did so as a tribute to Slenderman.
For those unfamiliar, Slenderman is an internet scary story initially created as part of a photo editing contest on the Something Awful forums in 2009. Readers of the forum were impressed by this impossibly tall and thin figure wearing a suit, and plaguing children. Others quickly added to the fictional mythos. The popularity of the figure exploded, and early in the viral phase of sharing, many sites purported to have the “True Story” of this mysterious figure, adding to the reality of the creation. Some sites even went as far as creating historical backstories, linking Slenderman to ancient wood carvings and Dark Age superstitions.
Slenderman stands as one of the most popular and enduring figures of the new internet age. Games have been built with him as the villain, web series have been produced on him, and I believe that this internet myth was distantly, partially, and indirectly the inspiration for mainstream media creations like The Silence in Doctor Who. Though, throughout history we’ve always had a natural fear of unnatural human forms, such as the haunting figure in Edvard Munch’s The Scream.
Many internetizens are familiar with the concept of Alternate Reality Gaming, games which use the real world as a back drop for puzzles and exploration. The main tenant of this style of game play is summed up in the acronym T.I.N.AG. This Is Not A Game. The players know it’s a fictional creation, but it’s fun to explore the concept of what lurks below the surface of our daily average existence.
There’s an undercurrent of T.I.N.A.G. in our storytelling as well. Search for the term “creepypasta” and you’ll find treasure troves of home grown, grassroots, horror literature. Most of it terrifically awful, but when viewed through the lens of T.I.N.A.G. it takes on the properties of a good found-footage movie. The spelling and syntax errors contributing to the suspension of disbelief.
This wasn’t crafted by some slick author, this came from a real person.
As we share this kind of media, the fun in exposing new people to the myth is NOT telling them it’s fake, not telling them the punchline before they’ve consumed it or experienced it. Unfortunately, during this internet game of telephone, two twelve year old girls never got the message that this was for entertainment purposes only.
It’s a fascinating situation. I suffer from the occasional paralytic waking nightmare. Throughout history people have told stories of demons, trolls, and witches that accost people during the night. As a child of the 80’s and a rabid sci-fi fan, my waking nightmares more resembled the aliens of Close Encounters of the Third Kind than trolls or demons. One of the two girls described seeing Slenderman in her dreams, and wanting to become one of his proxies.
Out of this horrible incident, have we witnessed the beginning of a new real-world myth? An internet creation breaking its digital bonds?
Is it possible for us to prevent our digital fantasies from manifesting in ways like this again?
I met a guy who had cosplayed as him during Katsucon last year and had no clue as to who he was. I’ve read up on this since the story broke and yeah… that’s some disturbing imagery.
The solution is both simple and difficult– it’s for people to realize that their loved one isn’t looking at the story through the glasses of the real world. As simple as that sounds, it’s very difficult because some people just don’t know what their loved ones are into.
Or maybe their loved ones are just really good at deception. But for a person to retreat so far into their fantasies and not leave some sort of trail or signs… it’s a bit farfetched. I always had an active imagination as a kid, and my mom would always make sure that I knew it was make believe.
I seriously think that there were other things going on with these two girls besides their active imagination. But I’m happy that the victim has survived.
Completely agree. Outreach and involvement are key. Not just parents too, but others in a community participating.