Photo by mdl70 on Flickr. Shared via Creative Commons license.
On the morning of May 31, 2014, two 12-year-old girls in southeastern Wisconsin lured their friend into the woods and took turns stabbing the victim 19 times with a large kitchen knife before leaving her for dead.
Fortunately, the wounded victim was rescued by a cyclist and taken to the hospital. However, the incident took a darker turn when the motives behind the crime committed by the two preteens were revealed. When interrogated by police, the girls revealed that they had been planning the attack for months.
Why? Slender Man.
The two girls had become obsessed with the fictional horror figure, who they believed communicated with them telepathically, and they were convinced that they needed to carry out this murder as his proxies so that they could live with him. Weeks later, another connection was made to Slender Man in the stabbing of an Ohio mom by her teenage daughter.
Who is this character that has turned from an Internet meme to an obsession?
The origin of Slender Man
In 2009, Eric Knudsen, known by his online pseudonym Victor Surge, created Slender Man as part of a paranormal Photoshop contest on the comedy forum Something Awful. The photos quickly went viral, and it was not long before Slender Man grew into a popular Internet meme.
Over the past five years, fans of Slender Man have manipulated more images, written stories, and produced vlogs and games based on the character, enabling him to grow into a much more horrific figure with complex backstories.
Power of the meme
Merriam-Webster defines a meme as “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.” In recent years, online memes have become a bigger part of society, spreading from person to person via online means. Some of the most popular memes include LOLcats and Rickrolling.
What’s interesting about the Slender Man meme, however, is that although it has existed since 2009, its popularity seemed to be confined to specific fan groups from horror and folklore communities. However, according to Google Trends, interest in Slender Man rose in 2012-2013 and skyrocketed this year following the two stabbing incidents.
Following the recent incidents, the curiosities of people who did not know about Slender Man before have been piqued — an interest that has caused the spike in online searches about the character. While many fan communities have removed their Slender Man-related content out of respect for the crime victims, it might not be long before new content surfaces in order to capitalize on the increased interest in Slender Man. Such is the power of the online meme.
Thank you for this background information. My 7 year old daughter mentioned “Slender Man” the other day and I had no idea what she was talking about.
I’ll have a chat with her tonight.
Jeff