I liked the ring of that. I quickly filled out the email and password, and I was good to go. Within a few minutes, my inbox was chock-full of friend requests. For the first time ever, I felt popular.
I started messaging a guy named Mike Tanes. I thought him to be witty and slightly eccentric, and took an instant liking of him. We were similar in many ways, and for some odd reason, I was able to share my innermost darkest secrets with him comfortably. Before I turned off my laptop for the night, I checked the ‘friend activity’ page of the website, which basically showed everything that my friends on RealTalk were up to, whether it be posting a picture, or approving friend requests. I saw that Mike had recently become friends with a girl named Tasha. I went to bed feeling anxious and slightly… jealous.
The next morning as soon as I woke up, I switched on my laptop and decided to do some research on Mike’s new lady friend. I spent a solid twenty minutes stalking her profile. I didn’t know why I was like this, but I felt the need to bring her down to make myself feel better. I decided to leave some anonymous comments on her most recent picture: “photoshop much?”, “nice pimples”, and “try hard”. I sighed to myself in satisfaction as I turned off my laptop. I felt instant regret as I walked out the front door.
For the next few months, I spent at least five hours per day on RealTalk, chatting with Mike, and posting cruel comments on Tasha’s timeline. As soon as I got home each day and turned on the computer, it felt like a switch deep inside of me was being turned on. I felt out of control with my other self, Betty Williams. After I turned the computer off, I felt terrible about my actions as I knew they were bad. But while in the moment, I couldn’t help myself. Soon it came to the point that I couldn’t even switch off the computer. I kept it on all day just in case Tasha posted a new picture or replied to my comments. I had to bring her self-esteem down. I went as far as to download the app on my phone, and it felt like I had merged into the Betty character I built. Even at school, I spent all of my time in my library, typing away malicious comments on RealTalk. I got no sleep. I was too busy staring into my screen and posting comment after comment on Tasha’s timeline. I was a walking zombie. I couldn’t think properly, and all I could think about was my new identity as Betty Williams. Betty was popular. She had an innumerable amount of friends on the insternet. She was best friends with a guy named Mike. She didn’t realize however, she had become the monster Ashley Kong would have hated had she known her.
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