Does the internet blur the ability of some to distinguish reality from fantasy?  Videos of felonies have been posted on YouTube and the posters seemed gobsmacked when they were arrested.  One girl actually showed the money she’d stolen in a bank robbery on YouTube. Now we have the gruesome spectacle of two 12 yo girls attempting murder based on a deranged obsession with The Slender Man which came from an article horror site Creepypasta that clearly was not meant to be taken factually.
The internet can help or hurt. Whatever your interest or quirk, there is a website about it. If you are a little unbalanced, finding Your People online may simply make you crazier. Or maybe you would have gone crazy anyway… Not only does the internet help the potentially unhinged find others like them (and indeed, sometimes they may help each other recover) it also spread news across the planet in minutes, which reinforces the process.
This incident shows what happens when the line of fiction and reality ceases to exist. When a person truly believes that Internet short stories are cold hard facts. When a person attempts to replicate works of fiction to the point others are harmed. And for this, I’m going to make myself loud and clear:
ALL WORKS PRESENTED ON THIS WIKI AND OTHER SITES (INCLUDING SLENDERMAN, JEFF THE KILLER, BEN, SONIC.EXE, ETC) ARE FICTIONAL STORIES AND CHARACTERS
This wiki does not endorse or advocate for the killing, worship, and otherwise replication of rituals of fictional works. There is a line of between fiction and reality, and it is up to you to realize where the line is. We are a literature site, not a crazy satanic cult.
Our hearts go out to the families affected by this crime.