Take a good look at this face. Have you ever seen This Man in your dreams? You're not alone. Thousands of people across the globe, from all walks of life, claim this exact stranger has appeared in their subconscious. This is the "This Man" dream phenomenon, one of the most unsettling urban legends of the digital age. But what if the entire story was a lie? We're diving headfirst into the viral mystery to expose the truth behind the face. We'll introduce you to Andrea Natella, the marketing genius who orchestrated this brilliant internet hoax as a conceptual art project. But here's where the story gets truly strange: once the image went viral, people actually started reporting dreams of him. Was this just the power of suggestion, or did this hoax accidentally tap into something much deeper? We'll explore the fascinating psychology of shared dreams, from Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious to the way digital folklore can literally shape our reality. This is a mind-bending story about art, misinformation, and the strange, shared space we all occupy when we close our eyes. If you love a good internet mystery that makes you question everything, you've found your next obsession. Subscribe now to unravel the truth behind "This Man," and share this with anyone who's ever had a dream they couldn't explain.

Where human communication and development is possible, folklore is developed. With the rise of digital communications and media in past decades, humans have adopted a new form of folklore within this ...

USU's Digital Folklore Project has announced that the Chicago Rat Hole meme, which is the imprint of a rat in the concrete sidewalk, has won Digital Lore of the Year for 2024.

You've seen the image: the endless, buzzing, yellow rooms. The damp carpet. The unnerving feeling that you've been there before. Welcome to The Backrooms, the most terrifying and fascinating urban legend ever built by the internet. In this episode, we're "noclipping out of reality" to explore this viral creepypasta phenomenon. We'll trace its origin from a single, anonymous 4chan post to a sprawling universe of lore, complete with infinite "levels" and horrifying "entities," built collaboratively by a global community. We'll dive into the groundbreaking found footage horror of Kane Pixels and how his vision is now being turned into a major A24 feature film. But this isn't just a scary story. It's a deep dive into the modern psyche. We'll explore the psychology of liminal spaces, the power of the uncanny, and why this story about getting lost reflects our deepest anxieties about a fragile reality in the digital age. Stick with us to the very end to hear about the real-life location where the original, haunting Backrooms photo was taken. It's time to get lost. Subscribe, share this with anyone who loves a good mystery, and whatever you do... don't wander off the path.

Ever been scrolling through Snapchat filters and seen a strange, glitchy figure appear for just a second? You're not alone, and the internet has a chilling theory: it’s a rogue employee, a ghost in the machine who is secretly watching you. This is the new face of internet horror. Welcome to the deep end of digital folklore. We're investigating the viral creepypasta of the Snapchat "employee" and asking the terrifying question: is it just a glitch, or is something sinister looking back at us through our screens? We'll trace the lineage of this modern urban legend from iconic tales like The Slender Man and "Candle Cove" to the immersive, reality-bending stories found on r/nosleep. This isn't just another scary story; it's an exploration of how our apps become our nightmares. We dissect how these narratives blur the line between fiction and reality and examine why "broken" or glitchy aesthetics on platforms like Lemon8 and TikTok can feel so deeply unsettling. Is this a new form of digital fiction, a tech conspiracy, or is your phone actually haunted? You're about to find out. If you've ever felt a chill from a weird glitch on your phone, you need to hear this. Subscribe now to unravel the mystery, and share this with a friend who sends you way too many Snaps!

Ever feel like you know a YouTuber… like, really know them? What if that feeling was a weapon, designed by Hollywood insiders to fool the entire world? Before the TanaCons and the Fyre Fests, there was the original sin of internet fame: LonelyGirl15. In this episode, we're journeying back to the wild west of early YouTube (2006, to be exact) to uncover the story of Bree, a sweet, quirky, homeschooled teenager who might be in a cult. Millions of people watched, worried, and fell in love. The only problem? None of it was real. We'll expose how a team of aspiring filmmakers meticulously crafted a scripted narrative to look like a genuine vlog, manipulating the brand-new algorithm and pioneering the art of the parasocial relationship. This isn't just a story about a clever hoax. It's the blueprint for modern misinformation, a masterclass in how an emotional narrative can hijack our brains and the story of the mass betrayal that taught us our first, hard lesson in media literacy. Stick with us to the very end to learn the one clever trick the creators used to manipulate YouTube's algorithm and guarantee their videos went viral. This is the most important piece of internet history you've never been told. Subscribe, share this with anyone who grew up online, and let's talk about the first time the internet fooled you.