The Anticlimactic Truth Behind the First Internet Mystery
Given both the internet’s universality and the anonymity it provides, it is flooded with mysteries, some revealed to simply be the works of artists, others the digital footprints of genuinely disturbed individuals. But predating the canon of internet mysteries — Cicada 3301, Lake City Quiet Pills, etc — was the Markovian Parallax Denigrate, referred to […]
The Story of Alex from Tennessee, the 4channer Who Went Missing
In April of 2013, an anonymous 4chan user would post coordinates to a so-called prize. He instructed seekers to “park nearby and walk to this point for the secret,” saying, “It’s under plastic at this point.” The vagueness of this description, coupled with the mere fact that the coordinates were posted on 4chan (aka the […]
The Story of Kaycee Nicole Swenson, the Original Catfish
In the current year, the possibility of being catfished is among the most well-known risks of interacting with strangers online. (For those unaware, “catfishing” refers to the creation of a fictional online persona, usually for the purpose of financial gain.) In the early days of the internet, however, people were more susceptible to deceit, as […]
