Slenderman Did It

I was introducted to the "Slender" game a couple of years ago, by my then 11 year old grandson who, along with his cousin, downloaded it, and "Kick the Buddy" onto my then new iPad.  I was going through the apps on my iPad when I noticed the games and, grandson at my elbow cautiously ensuring that I wouldn't delete the new games, pulled up the games to see what they were.

Okay, I didn't really like them but other than a vague feeling of, well, ickiness, couldn't find anything overtly objectionable.  So I, with reservations intact, allowed the games to stay.  When my iPad disappeared a couple of months later, and then reappeared without the games, I was happier.  So today, in the news, in the aftermath of the horrible shooting at Cici's Pizza of two Metro police officers, I'm reading that the male suspect of the 'Bonnie and Clyde' couple type of murderers liked to dress up as Slenderman.

I knew it sounded familiar, so I googled it and yep, it was the same shadowy, ominous, slinky, faceless figure from the "Slender" game and still icky.  So google brings me more information, more than I wanted.  An attempted stabbing of a mother by her daughter who was wearing a hood and white mask in Cincinnati, and more unconsciounable, a group of  12-year-old Wisconsin girls who stabbed their friend 19 times in honor of, you guessed it, slenderman.

So is this hooded, shadowy figure from a game (where his part is no more violent than abduction) guilty of inspiring this kind of violence, or it is just a way to point a finger away from those who find such violence exciting.  Reminiscent of the anti-Dungeons and Dragons sentiment that playing the role-playing games would incite people to become Satanists.  Or the concern that violent video games would incite kids to perform violent acts.  I tend to think that maybe viewing violence dehumanizes the victims and, for some, make it exciting enough to consider trying it out themselves.  Then once the reality of what has been done sets in, they can turn to the boogeyman.

Kind of a "The boogeyman made me do it."  I used to believe that the boogeyman didn't exist.  Now, I'm not so sure.