Folklore is one of the oldest forms of communication in the human language. Most of the time, folkloric tales are exclusive to the (ethnic) communities by which they are told. For example, La Llorona is a prevalent legend in the Latin community, and tales of singing sirens (or mermaids) are usually told by sailors to other sailors. Folklore is also mostly, if not always, told orally. That is essentially what makes folklore, folklore. After the invention of the printing press, communication rapidly increased, and this time it included more than just folk tales. The printing revolution enabled us share knowledge more explicitly and more efficiently than ever before. Technological modernization over the past couple decades has further boosted the rate in which information could be produced and passed around. Nowadays, one quick search on Google could give thousands of entries containing information.
So, it seems as though the concept of folklore or legends has vanished with the technological revolution. However, with the expansion of the internet space over the last twenty-or-so years, people from different geographical and cultural communities are now able to interact with each other even more. So much so, that internet users have formed their own separate community on the world wide web. And as I’ve mentioned before, communities usually come with their own strand of folkloric tales and urban legends.
Origin: The Blair Witch Project and other ARGs
One of the earliest forms of internet urban legends could be Alternative Reality Games, or commonly known as ARGs. ARGs are still prominent on the internet today, some of them even found on the popular app TikTok. However, the most well-known ARG on the internet is The Blair Witch Project. In the 1990s, this movie was one of the first to be filmed in the point of view of the characters themselves, using the aesthetic of home-made videos to convey a real experience. However, the marketing for this movie was even more revolutionary. This was the first movie to promote itself through the internet. The website blairwitch.com could have been the main reason why so many people believed this movie was real. The websites contains extensive information about the supposed Blair witch in Maryland, with interviews, diary extractions, and recorded voice memos that seem very real to the public. While The Blair Witch Project is the most famous ARGs, some have argued that the first ARG could be the radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds by Orson Welles. Broadcasted in 1938, this broadcast was conducted live and contained a real performance of the original story. Welles’ idea of creating a new reality through his story telling left the nation in complete disarray. While it is easier now to debunk most ARGs on the internet, the element of realism remains essential to the genre of ARGs today.
2010s: SCP Universe and Creepy Pastas
The last decade has especially seen a substantial growth of urban legends falling under the genre of Creepy Pastas. These are essentially short scary stories involving supernatural entities. From Slenderman to Jeff the Killer to most recently Momo, it seems as though each year there is a new viral creepy pasta story. Unlike old folk tales involving supernatural entities, entities from Creepy Pastas are usually given an explicit description of their origin, early life and there are even times where viral photos of the entity are passed around. This is also true for the latest string of internet urban legends, the SCP universe. In this alternate universe, the SCP Foundation is an institution that captures, contains and studies thousands of supernatural anomalies found around the world. These creatures are divided in 4 different classes, depending on their level of threat. Much like The Blair Witch Project, there is also a website dedicated to the legend, and readers are able to learn more about the foundation and the anomalies themselves.
It is quite interesting how an old tradition like Folklore was able to not only survive the every-growing developments of the modern, technological world, but how it also penetrated and evolved on the internet. The art form is most prominent (and most of the time originates) on web forums like Reddit and 4Chan, and are also commonly reproduced by creators on Youtube and podcasters.
Sources used:
- Loey Lane – Exploring the Forgotten Blair Witch Cult Website | A 1990s Viral Internet Mystery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z0LKrKmKx4&t=1463s
- Inside a Mind – The Broadcast That Terrified A Nation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKralXDreqk&t=717s - The Infographics Show – The SCP Foundation EXPLAINED:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBE1pFBoiTY
This inventive piece offers a spin on a traditional medium to fit a modern context. I found it really interesting to read about these stories, especially as I hadn’t heard much of them before. After looking into a few of the examples mentioned, you can really get the sense of why images or fictional universes, which further some kind of underlying theme, stick in peoples’ minds. That’s why it seems to me that these types of internet folklore capture the essence of why humans are so deeply attracted to storytelling. The artform persists, taking whatever form it must to survive, gaining new meanings for new audiences in new contexts. Although I wouldn’t admit to being an expert, I’d imagine that in these Creepy Pastas there’s some kind of link to much older stories or folktales.
Sorry for the late reply, but yes! story telling remains one of the most popular art forms for humans for sure. That’s why I was so interested in writing about this, because even though the world has changed a lot with technological advancements, our love for story telling and the fundamentals for those types of traditions never go away, they just take a different form. I feel like there is beauty in that, because it shows us the things that make humans, humans.
The caption of this blogpost immediately grabbed my attention, since I have always been interested in folkloric stories and their origins. The development you described of how folklore evoloved on digital platforms is really interesting and sounds very logical. The folkloric way of telling a story orally and sharing the tales between groups has been transformed in the digital world into quickly spreading stories that seem to be very real (like the Blair Witch Project). Personally, I am not aware of any creepy pastas (as far as I know), since I really hate horror and everything that is remotely linked to it, but I have educated myself plenty on the actual old folklores through the internet.
The telling and researching of the origins of folklore are also widely discussed on platforms like YouTube, where creators like Jon Solo recap all kinds of folkloric tales and dive into their possible origins. By means of these ‘new’ digital technologies, old folklore is kept alive and new folklore is being created, resulting in a beautiful mess of folk tales and digital lores. Really nice blogpost!