Chain Texts

Informant:

H.C.  is a first-year student at USC studying in Annenberg. Haley grew up in Denver Colorado and is familiar with certain Colorado legends. She also has an important and unique point of view, since she is a Millennial, which seems to be the most “out-there” and transformative generation we have seen thus far. Because of this, she is a perfect informant, as she holds a modern and up-to-date perspective. All interviews were held in a study-room on campus.

Folklore:

 

H.C. : “I actually encountered this today while I was on Facebook in the form of a comment. This is a perfect example of what I was going to talk to you about. I don’t get them so much anymore, but I used to receive texts like this, like, every day in middle school. They used to absolutely terrify me, but now that I’m older, I realize how silly they are. Here is what I’m talking about…”

 The following text was copied and pasted directly from the said Facebook comment:

I’m so sorry. Keep reading on, or die tonight a exactly

12:42. This

is based on a TRUE STORY! Once there

was

a baby

girl named Marry. Her mother couldn’t

take

all the

crying, so she decided it was time for her

to

1. She

buried her baby alive in her back yard.

After she

buried her she could still hear Marry

crying.

So she dug her back up and stabbed her

one

time in the arm,

and buried her again. Marry cried harder,

but a few

hours later it stopped. At exactly 12:42,

Marry died.

She bleed to death. Now her sprite

haunts

the

world. When your sleeping, she stabs

you in

the

arm and watches you bleed to death.

And

that’s how she got the name “Bloody

Marry” this is the true story

of her. She wants everyone to feel her

pain

that she

felt. Apparently, if you re-post This isn’t

fake.

Apparently, if you copy and paste this to

ten

comments in the next ten minuets you

will

have the

best day of your life tomorrow. You will

either get kissed or asked out, if you

brake

this chain you will

see a little dead girl in your room tonight.

In the next

53 minuets someone will say I love you

or

I’m sorry

to 12 other comments you will have the

best day of

your life tomorrow. But if you break this

chain you die

at exactly 12:42 tonight by Bloody Marry.

Don’t believe me? You’ll see not taking

Analysis:

I used to receive these texts all the time, and I’m really glad H.C. pointed this out because I forgot how relevant it was to my younger-self. I was terrified, just like Haley. It’s really funny, actually, because you can seemingly equate one’s maturity level or even intelligence level by who chooses to forward these chain messages. The basic premise is simple: Forward this message or else something bad will happen to you or someone you love! The messages are usually full of grammar errors and ridiculous fallacies. Obviously, it is impossible to trace the origin of who created these messages, but in my opinion, the original creators did so in order to get a rise out of an audience and possibly see how far their message can spread. Spoiler alert: they spread fast and far!