Sometimes I like to think about how internet wires go to everywhere on earth, and how you can hold onto an Ethernet cable and know that that wire, whether by electricity or light is directly linking you to millions of rooms, like a doorway that you're just a little to big to get through, but if you hold the wire and wish hard enough maybe you can find the people you want to be near. However in truth it goes both ways; on the other end of that wire are dark places too.
I think one of the spooky things Iv experienced was logging into my account on my dads computer that I had not used for about 4 years; and seeing it auto load up with chats and pages and programs that I had been using 4 years prior, with messages in the middle of conversations with an ex, and projects I had been super into at the time; that was like an e-ghost of the past coming back to haunt me; and even though it was just a few years it felt like Id stepped into a portal of my past life :trash:
This got deeper than I expected :P
So I think if there are ghosts on the internet they are future ghosts; living users that terrorize archives by deleting them and changing their meaning and observing them.
Or maybe its just that we know we will become those archives sooner or later; our loved ones will turn into emails and facebook posts; and for just a moment, I can see that future, and know that in all of this, perhaps Iv missed my own humanity as Iv slowly turned into a trail of webpages and forum posts; and I think of those emails from loved ones Iv taken for granted, and they are like future ghosts that have arrived before their time :ohdear:
Slightly OT:
I think that - if one wants to create truly unsettling internet ghost stories - sticking close to reality might be the way to go.
Trigger warning!
Perfect AI-clones of dead people that miss their body. Text files, stored on obscure servers that replace the character of those who read them with killers. Dating platforms that systematically isolate people, replacing their whole social environment by chat bots. Digital magic mirrors that project perfect versions of yourself over you, but cause you to starve in pursuit of looking like them. Ancient boards were techniques of yesterday are discussed by - bodyless? - avatars to all eternity.