Blogpost 4: Slendy Slender Man

     Imagine yourself walking on a forest with just a flashlight. You are hoping to see something amazing, something that will interest you. But then, you see a man standing. Just standing there. When you try tried to walk closer to him, you noticed that he has no face features at all. He only have a pale white skin. No eyes, nose or mouth. What will you do? If I were you, I will run.

    Ever heard of "Slender Man"? Slender Man was created when a forum called "Something Awful" decided to do a contest with the theme of "Create Paranormal Things" and apparently, Slender Man won. He was created by a man named Victor Surge on June 10 , 2009. He also explained that the entity was suppose to stalk children. Surprisingly, the entity became famous because of its mysterious appearance.

     He became viral on the internet world when a game was released wherein you need to step out of the woods and gather 8 pages. But, beware, a man with no face wearing a suit is going to hunt you while on your way. Personally, I became addicted to this game.

     As the game goes viral, netizens begun to ask whether Slender Man is real or not. Conspiracies boomed the internet. Some pictures went out wherein they said that they captured the real Slender Man. Some even said that they were like a few inches away from him. But the question is, how did he become famous despite the fact that he is only made up a ceratin person in our generation?

    I read a certain article that was entitled "Slender Man: the first urban legend (investigating the origins of the internet's creepiest meme)" by an Zing Tsjeng of dazeddigital.com wherein he explained that one of the greatest factor why Slendy is famous is because the present generation allowed us to participate in creating the myth unlike the old times wherein you only have the chance to tell it to everyone by talking or chatting. He even said that the BBC stated that Slender Man is the "First great myth of the web". Because of how influential netizens are, the myth of Slender Man became viral. He even said, "And that’s exactly what happened: it accelerated. SomethingAwful fans loved Slender Man (“this is going to give me nightmares” one user proclaimed). They created more Slender Man photoshops, writing accounts of their own “personal encounters” with Slender Man, and even penning fake news stories describing Slender Man appearances."


     Just imagine how this man-made entity became viral because of the internet. In fact, a lot of people admitted that they are more scared than Slender Man compared to other entities who has more gruesome face than him. Why is that so?

    I read a certain article that answered my question on how Slender Man became successful on scaring people. The article was entitled "The Slender Man Myth" by Alastair Stephens of alastairstephens.com wherein he said how Slendy found his way to the peak of fame. He cited different influential youtube channels who dedicated some videos for Slender Man that somehow helped to the progress of making him well-known. There are also some stories created by the famous creepy stories website, creepypasta.com. He stated in his blog that Slendy, somehow, looks like other entities that boomed in our society which somehow affected our minds on thinking that he is so creepy. He even said that, " There are two reasons, I believe, that the Slender Man has been so successful: the first is his evocation of a particular kind of horror iconography, similar to the Gentlemen from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the Silence from Doctor Who, the Observers from Fringe, Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Lovecraft’s Nightgaunts and vampires. The facelessness of the Slender Man — a later addition to the myth, replacing the idea that the Slender Man could change his appearance — is also a common image, referencing even the Noppera-bō of Japanese myth. There are overtones of Munsch’s The Scream in the elongated limbs and smooth, bald head; in action, many of the referenced creatures share the same penchant for tilting their heads slowly, oftentimes as a precursor to some terrible occurrence."

    So it is possible that the mythos of Slender Man became successful is because people see him as something they used to be scared of. He is more or so, a combination of all the creepy creatures you have seen when you were a kid. You tend to be influenced by the way you see things before and how you see things now.

     In the end, people tends to be afraid to something they never saw and something a lot of people are afraid of. The society around you influences your mind to be afraid of something that doesn't actually exist. Slender Man was a man made entity made to creep the hell out of. He is not real but he remains as scary as other because of the mystery lingering on his story. That is the reason behind the fame of the "Internet's first greatest myth "