THE TALE OF THE TARGETED ADS
Every day, Mark would wake up and scroll through the internet for 30 minutes before he got out of bed. He’d check on his feed, his likes, his friends’ events, and his favorite YouTubers’ cooking videos. Then he’d make himself breakfast.
One day, he noticed that among his usual targeted ads for FreshDirect and fancy pots and pans, there were ads for fire extinguishers. He made himself breakfast.
Soon, every morning, during his 30 minutes of scrolling, the only ads he’d see were for fire extinguishers. Friends getting engaged, fire extinguisher, improv comedy show invite, fire extinguisher, Buzzfeed Quiz, fire extinguisher. He made himself breakfast. He forgot to turn off the gas.
On the day of his funeral, a package from Amazon was delivered to his doorstep. It was a fire extinguisher. He hadn’t ordered prime.
THE TALE OF HBOGO
It was Sunday at 9pm. Lauren opened her laptop and typed in the web address for HBOGo. It was time to watch Big Little Lies.
On the webpage, her login was not accepted. Her friend had changed the password.
THE TALE OF THE INSTAGRAM STORIES
Ben loved Instagram. He posted once a day and added stories even more frequently. He did it to distract himself from how bad his break-up had been.
They hadn’t spoken since they’d broken up, and he muted her so that he wouldn’t see her in his feed, and she unfollowed him. But even though she ghosted him, she still watched all his stories. He’d scroll down and see her picture in the views. And it made him happy to know that she still cared.
One day, after they’d been broken up for a month, he took a deep breath and looked at her feed. Her last picture was one that he recognized. She posted it before they had broken up. He looked at the comments, they were all condolences, RIP. She died a month ago.
Devastated, he posted a story, speaking directly to the front facing camera expressing his sorrows about her passing. In the views… he saw her picture.
THE TALE OF THE RIDE SHARE
After a late night drinking, Samantha ordered an Uber to take her home. She played with her new necklace as she waited for it to arrive.
The driver pulled over. He said: Uber for Samantha? She got into the car. She didn’t check the license plate. There was another man in the front seat and one in the back. Weird, she didn’t order a pool.
In the back seat, she played with her new necklace, in script, it read SAMANTHA.
THE TALE OF THE TINDER DATE
Grace decided to get back on the dating apps. She swiped a bunch on Tinder. Matching with a few guys and chatting back and forth.
One guy, Brian F, handsome with no fishing pictures in sight, asked her on a date. She met him a nice spot for cocktails, and they hit it off. They flirted and drank all night. He put everything on his tab – Brian Fieldstone. When he said goodbye, he kissed her. When she got home, he texted her to say he had such a great time, can they do it again soon?
Smiling as she opened her Instagram, she types in his full name to search for him. As she scrolled down his feed, she was reminded of how cute he was in person and how great their first kiss was. Then, she came to a photo and her blood went cold and her cheeks turned bright red… as red as his MAGA hat.