Technology has evolved from simply being a tool to being an extension of the self, making the interneta community. And one thing a collective of humans has done since the dawn of time is tell stories and myths.

Dissemination of modern legends is a process unique to us and online platforms. Once an idea is planted, it will — on probability alone — reach someone who shares a similar experience, who then, feeling a mixture of catharsis and validation by the commonality, will share their own story, and so on.

In an instant, these myths will evolve, adapt, and spread rapidly thanks to the dynamic and participatory nature of online culture.

Digital myths can range from eerie and mysterious stories to complex theories and unexplainable phenomena, with people all around the world corroborating each other’s accounts of the unknown through shared experiences.

Perhaps one of the earliest forms of digital mythology came in the form of an email:Remember the one claiming whoever “breaks the forwarding chain ” will have bad luck for the rest of their lives? Some people still connect their bad luck today for not sending it out, and since superstitious beliefs are ingrained in us at a young age, we’re primed to err on the side of caution when forced to interact.

While many other online myths are fuelled by fear of the unknown, we don’t engage with all of them on a “better safe than sorry” basis — some of them tap into more communal (and neurological) experiences.

One such myth has to do with the phenomenon of the Mandela Effect — a situation where a large group of people remember an event, fact, or detail in a specific way despite evidence to the contrary. It takes its name from the shared (non-factual) memory of Nelson Mandela’s death in prison.

Researcher Fiona Broome coined the term after observing that many people — herself included — (falsely) remember Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s. But that’s not all. They vividly recollect seeing news coverage of his death as well as a speech by his widow. Not only was Mandela released from prison entirely alive in 1990, he went on to lead South Africa out of decades of apartheid before passing away in 2013, dying at a ripe old age of 95.

The Mandela Effect is just the phenomenon — the myth is that it is proof of parallel universes. Some have even documented “ evidence ” that both versions exist on different planes.

Scientists insist that it is a neurological event, proof of how bad our memories really are. Most laymen agree that it can be explained by science, but their persuasion is more… quantum.

They believe that it is the direct result of CERN launching the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, in 2008.

In their view, CERN’s experiments shifted quantum fields, swapping pieces of our universe with those of a parallel one. Because our consciousness isn’t affected by physical changes in reality, memories of the “original” state of things remained.

While believers in this myth try to rationalize it with science, other legends are taken at face value.

Creepypasta, horror-based legends that circulate online, first emerged in 2008 and have given rise to many cultural myths. While they were first related as real stories, the term now covers user-generated horror fiction. Early stories like Ted the Caver and Slender Man have been adopted into global lore, with people still insisting that both are based on real-life experiences.

A recent(ish) creepypasta unfolded on social media. Adam Ellis’s Dear David thread on Twitter, now X, began with a simple post: “So, my apartment is currently haunted by the ghost of a dead child and he’s trying to kill me.”

Over hundreds of tweets and several months, Ellis documents his interactions with this poltergeist, offering photos and videos of supernatural occurrences.

The thread received over 61 mn retweets and 73.9 mn likes, and was followed widely by an international audience. Ellis still maintains that the story wasn’t fabricated.

Other more existential legends inextricably linked to online culture include the simulationhypothesis, which posits that life is as we know is akin to the The Matrix, a computer-generated simulation run by a highly advanced civilization.

There is also the belief in the Backrooms, a mysterious and infinite network of nearly identical rooms that exist beyond our perception of reality.

While not backed by scientific evidence or pre-existing mythology, people regularly post evidence of “ glitches ” in the simulation to prove its existence, and pictures of the Backrooms, liminal spaces that feel eerily familiar to most people.

Are digital myths a case of collective consciousness or elaborate online hoaxes? Who’s to tell? The reality is that these modern myths and urban legends have worked their way into global culture by capturing the imagination of millions, which makes them, whether we like it or not, part of human history. Or at the very least, a great form of entertainment.

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