Talk:Hellhound/@comment-174.53.167.220-20150325201831/@comment-25035274-20150327141440

Kuruni, people who get into Creepypasta tend to enjoy keeping the suspense up, so they treat it like actual mythology. And, interestingly enough, in doing so they're actually making it mythology. Over time, there will be (and in fact already are) people who don't realize Slender, Smile Dog, BEN Drowned, etc. are just stories people made up on the Internet for fun. In other words, they ARE actually already urban legends, and it only took two or three years, and in some cases mere months, for some of them to reach that point.

There has actually already been, at minimum, one attempted murder wherein a couple of 11 or 12 year olds tried to gain Slenderman's favor by murdering their friend. The friend managed to escape, but still, it happened. And this isn't some made up rumor. It was actually all over the news after it happened, and just a few weeks ago 20/20 did a piece on it. I'd link the 20/20 piece, but Youtube's not one of the pre-approved sites for linking. Just search "20/20 Slenderman".

If you look at it from a sociological perspective, it's actually pretty fuckin' cool in its own way. We're seeing the birth of mythological figures, as it happens.