Background:

Slender man, a supernatural creature that is often depicted as an incredibly tall humanoid wearing a suit, with a head possessing no features or face.  Inspiring many series such as the interactive web series Marble Hornets, the urban legend began as a creepypasta created on the Something Awful forums.  Creepypasta, or online horror legends or photographs, got their name from copypasta, which notes their tendency to be copy and pasted in blocks of text across various forums and social media websites across the internet.  This method of spreading information anonymously across the internet can be attributed to the popularization of this urban legend.  Although the story has been proved to be a fictional work with an original author that is identifiable, the story of slender man is seen to possess many traits of traditional folklore.  According to Professor Shira Chess of University of Georgia, the story of Slenderman provides collectivity, variability, and performance differences.  The story of slender man, is firstly, told by a collective.  While it began from one person, the story is told by many.  With many interpretations of Slenderman, it creates variation that shapes the legend.  Each unique story, adds to the creature known as Slenderman.  Often even when performing this folktale, the mediums will be different. They could be images like the original forum post, to text stories and movies, and even video games.

Analysis:

I believe this is representative of the collaborative nature of the internet.  A world where any one story or image can add on to the canon.  The course of slender man’s development is also reminiscent of many of the Lovecraftian stories.

Link to the CreepyPasta forum Entry: https://www.creepypasta.com/slenderman/