Click. Click. Click. The clamoring of a keyboard could be heard echoing through the house as she continued to develop her new persona. Five-foot-four, one hundred and eight pounds, brunette with blue eyes. Oh, and not to mention being a former cheerleader. If that wasn't enough she was smart too, boasting a perfect GPA. Everything and anything she wanted to be and do was painted upon the online persona she had created.

 

Over the course of days, she began to collect followers. Slowly at first but quickly picking up pace as it neared the end of the week. Her thoughts were filled with fleeting happiness as the followers she had empowered her with their praise. She wanted more.

 

She began posting updates about her life, adding to the once stagnant feed of hers. More and more people came to her page as they were enticed by the content she was posting. Her persona was gaining popularity and life while her own was a light dwindling down. The sun no longer sought glimpses through her blinds as the darkness slowly enveloped her. Her diet began to change as it used to consist of  home cooked meals but by rather a mess of instant meals bought in bulk at the local corner mart. Coupled along with the lack of motivation to leave the house, her health declined even further, becoming enveloped by the long nights spent in front of a seamlessly static screen. She no longer lived for her real self but her virtual self.

 

Her followers began to overwhelm her, asking for more details about her private life hoping to gain the insight on the internet celebrity herself. At first she felt encouraged to do so as they were a select few loyal followers. Yet, as her fan base grew, everyone wanted to know everything about her. What she was wearing and where she was going. Why was she with those people and who were they. Questions began filling up the comments of her posts and these questions began to feel more and more invasive but she continued to answer as she felt inclined to.

 

On sites where occurrences would be recorded, her name started popping up. Things she said began to take shape as fact rather than fiction. They were backed up by the online white knights she had garnered. Her persona had grown immensely and perhaps attracted too much attention.

 

One comment. That's all it took. Everything began to crumble as someone had indentified her lies, someone had figured out her real identity. Holes in her story began to appear and widen. The world she built up began to crumble and her inbox was filled with hate mail. Cold words flowed out of the screen she had once found warmth in.

 

She didn't want all of this, she just wanted to be a bit better than she was in real life. It was gone, her reputation was shattered be it in reality or virtually. She had nothing left to go cling on to. Her world in pieces as the balance she wanted never existed. Putting the digital world over the real one, she had lost it all.

 

The monitoring stopped here as the subject began to progress into extreme stages of depression. Action will be taken to make sure of the subject's safety.

 

Reality and virtual reality are becoming more and more intertwined as the digital world is slowly being integrated into reality. That does not mean that we must become slaves of technology. Instead we should aim to become denizens of the net. We should not forget our physical selves as our lifeline is currently linked to reality.