#TheAlgorithm
A short story about the horrors of social media addiction and clout chasing.
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In a dimly lit police interrogation room sat a young man in his 20’s. Dylan McQuade was an aspiring creator: riding the wave of social media, Dylan would vlog his way through campus every day. During his senior year of high school, Dylan started a YouTube channel with his friends Arnie and Lester. The whole thing started as a joke: “We found aliens in my grandma’s backyard” was the name of the video, and within 24 hours, it went viral.
Dylan went from being nobody to being a hometown celebrity. He wound up on local news, Good Morning America, and even scored an episode on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Dylan was surfing on cloud nine with his newfound fame as “the kid who found aliens in his grandma’s backyard”.. for eight months. Around that time, his world of internet clout came crashing down harder than an SUV in a hurricane when an anonymous YouTuber named “Sherlock Fox” debunked his entire video, labeling him as a “fraud,” “con artist,” “clout chaser,” etc. Dylan soon lost everything: his friends, his fans, and his girlfriend, Adelaide.
After his fall from grace, Dylan’s mental health took a sharp decline. He grew more and more desperate to regain the fame he had before he went to college. He tried everything: prank videos, social commentary, unboxing, internet challenges, even committing crimes.
His addiction to hitting that dopamine rush he had eight months ago struck an unbearable limit when he filmed himself driving Adelaide’s car while drunk. Adelaide relentlessly pleaded with him to turn off the camera and stop, but, her words fell to deaf ears.
“This is going to get so many views! I’m back, baby!” He shouts.
“Dylan! Stop this! You’re going too fucking fast! Stop!” screams Adelaide.
The car, a 2018 Jeep Liberty, kept gliding from one side of the road to the next. The song “Tokyo Drift” by the Teriyaki Boyz was playing at max volume. Dylan kept on the gas as Adelaide attempted to wrestle the phone off of the dashboard. Dylan thrashes her.
“What the fuck are you doing?!”
The car continues sliding, and Adelaide starts to berate Dylan.
