There’s a feeling that there is no word for yet, because no one had ever experienced it prior to the internet era: the dizzying sensation of seeing an online drama escape into the real world.
Zeke always compared it to watching that demon girl crawl out of the TV in The Ring, a barrier of safety and unreality breached and violated right before your eyes.
He was now in bed but a million miles from sleep, terrified of missing the next bombshell.
So now he was lying there, the room dark aside from the glow of the phone lighting his face.
[…] It was like the time he’d received a letter from his doctor implying there was grave news that could only be shared in-person, then when he’d called to make an appointment, was told the doctor had gone on vacation for two weeks.
— Zeke in Jason Pargin, I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom, 2024, Ch. Day 1, p. 113-114