PurgaStories

Jimmy Fenton sat in his work cubicle scrolling aimlessly through his social media feed. Jimmy was a journalist at a mediocre news station and hadn’t contributed much during his time there. He longed for the chance to catch a big break and find that life changing news story that would finally make him visible to his colleagues. As he scrolled past countless memes, faked food hacks and subscription service advertising, he came across an ad that grabbed his attention.

A short, 60-second promo for a new social media application was gaining quite a following. The app, PurgaStory was a networking and sharing app unlike any other. The app allowed users to create a profile and answer a few preliminary questions to determine their base personality rating, aiming to answer the question “Am I a good person?” Users then connect their page with others and can submit stories of their life experiences and encounters with each other. These stories are then shared for people to comment and vote on. Instead of simply liking a post, one would read the shared story of how someone had acted or behaved in a way that affected someone else’s life either positively or negatively, and allow them to click on either “good” or “bad”, voting toward this person’s developing personality score. The app would then reward the user accordingly for their exemplary or be it, deplorable humanitarian display.

The ad had gained over 60,000 likes and comments from people discussing how this app had changed their lives. This was it! This was the story that Jimmy had been waiting for, and this story...this PurgaStory would forever change his life as well.

On Wednesday, Jimmy had an appointment to meet and interview Grace Matthews. Grace had become a viral sensation on PurgaStory. Jimmy and a 2-man film crew arrived at Grace’s rather large estate around 7am, pulled up to the massively ornate front gates, and pushed the call button on the adjacent speaker box. The gates opened and the news van made its way up the long drive to the front of the luxurious estate. Grace and her house staff greeted the news team at the door and paraded them through the foyer, into the living area where they were treated to coffee and French pastries. As the cameras rolled, Miss Matthews proceeded to tell the story of how a social media app, with the help of a few kind words from everyday acquaintances, unexpectedly brought a middle-class nurse’s assistant from rags to riches.

“I made the account just for fun, without thinking much of it really. Then all these people that I hardly knew started writing all kinds of really nice things,” she said. “I see a lot of patients come into the hospital every day. It was wonderful to hear all these stories of how much they appreciated the little things. I never realized how much just being nice to someone could have such a positive effect. You never really know what people are going through, so I always try to make them smile whenever they come in. Honestly, it was enough just to feel validated really, but then the packages started arriving.”

“Packages?” Jimmy asked.

“At first, they started small; gift cards, dinner vouchers, but as more people commented and shared, the whole thing went viral. My personality score reached into the top tier, and things just kept growing from there. I started receiving checks regularly in the mail, and before you know it, I was able to open my own medical care facility. I paid off my nursing school loans and eventually bought the hospital where I used to work. It’s all just been a dream come true, and I owe it all to PurgaStory.”

Back at the news station, Jimmy reviewed the footage with his management team. They were ecstatic. They gave Jimmy the green light to continue his developing story into a 4-part series to begin full-production immediately. Jimmy got started right away doing research and scheduling additional interviews with other success stories from the PurgaStory community. He wanted to know everything he could about this mysterious new application, but unfortunately, all of Jimmy’s attempts to contact someone from the PurgaStory corporate office ended in failure. This was highly intriguing, as there seemed to be no public information available as to who exactly was behind the PurgaStory curtain. It was all a big mystery, one that Jimmy was determined to crack.

Jimmy scoured the internet for more leads and details to add to his story. It was then he decided that the best way to understand the inner workings of the application, was to join himself. He downloaded the app and stared nervously at the home screen for a bit. He had heard so many great stories, yet something about it just made him feel uneasy. Eventually he bit the bullet and created a profile. The app required him answer a long list of personality questions, from a lengthy selection of self-descriptive adjectives, to situational response questions and true/false statements. After completing the survey, Jimmy’s account status was listed as “pending” and he was instructed to check back within 48-hours for approval. The app provided him a link to share and connect with other users and informed him that he could begin writing and receiving posts immediately.

Jimmy began browsing the list of members within the app and found that his cousin Blake had an account. He sent Blake a direct message, along with the link to his page, then turned in for the night. As soon as he woke, he immediately logged on to the app again His account was still listed as “pending”, but he noticed that he had several messages in his inbox. The first message was from Blake. It read, “Hey Jimbo! Long time cuz. I actually saw your PurgaStories segment on the news the other night and that’s the reason I created a profile. I haven’t received any stories yet on mine, but I went ahead and wrote one on yours. You should see it on there once your account goes live. Anyways, hope you like what I wrote. I’m sure you will. – B.”

The rest of the messages were all from the same account, User87239. The profile had no name, info, or posts. The messages were strange, saying things like, “Delete your account”, “Stop the story” and “Hurry before it’s too late!” Jimmy got a bit freaked out, but ultimately shrugged it off, deleted the messages and finished getting ready for work.

Jimmy finished interviewing a single mother who had adopted and raised 5 multi-racial children. Her eldest daughter created the account for her, and it was instantly flooded with loving messages from friends, family, adoption agencies, and even some of the children’s biological parents. The family’s life had turned topsy-turvy from shared bedrooms and instant ramen dinners, to being able to afford all 5 children’s college tuitions. It was another miracle story for a deserving family. This app was suddenly seeming far too good to be true, yet somehow it was.

After the interview, Jimmy’s phone alerted him that his account had been activated and showed a list of positive reviews on his cousin Blake’s post. Blake had shared the story of when he had been in a car accident. Jimmy had come to the hospital and offered to be his personal chauffeur until he fully recovered. Jimmy kept his promise and drove Blake everywhere he requested for nearly an entire year, never once failing to make himself available. The post had blown up, already receiving over a thousand “good” ratings and comments. This made Jimmy’s day and he documented it for his follow-up news segment.

The following day, Jimmy received a package in the mail. It was wrapped in brown paper, with the PurgaStory “P” logo on the front and no return address. Inside was an envelope with a card, welcoming Jimmy to the PurgaStory community and a message, “Congratulations on your first viral story.” Jimmy hadn’t realized it until then, but his story from Blake had already received over 10,000 positive responses. Inside the envelope was a gas card and a keyring with a note and an address. Jimmy immediately drove to the listed address and arrived at a Mercedez-Benz dealership. He walked inside and handed the key to the girl at the front counter, who then proceeded to walk Jimmy out front and show him his new, Mercedes-Benz GLE 350, fully paid for by...you guessed it; PurgaStory!

After the third installment of Jimmy’s PurgaStories: The Social Mediator news special aired, the entire network was in awe, not only because of the success and high ratings of the program; but also envious of Jimmy’s sudden popularity and his new car, which he proudly showed off in the latest episode. Jimmy checked his account and discovered another mysterious message from User87239. The subject line read, “Urgent” and went on to mention “a matter of life or death”, requesting a meeting in the alley behind the news station at midnight. Jimmy thought it must be a joke from a co-worker but decided to play along. At midnight he showed up behind the station and waited for about 15 minutes, but no one arrived. Feeling like he had been had, he walked back to his car and was overwhelmed with an awful stench near the dumpster. It seemed odd for the news station to have such foul-smelling trash, so he pinched his nose and curiously opened it to have a look. When he did, he noticed a dead body inside and suddenly jumped backwards in horror. He immediately called the police.

Jimmy didn’t tell the cops about the message he’d received or the meeting in the alley. Instead, he made up a story, stating that he had misplaced a flash drive with some feature footage that he urgently needed and was checking the dumpster to make sure it hadn’t been thrown out by mistake. The next day, Jimmy received a second post on his account.

An anonymous post appeared, describing how Jimmy had embellished a news story, and presented false accusations which led to the conviction of an innocent man. The story was from years prior when Jimmy was still only an intern, and this was the story that had earned him his current position. The anonymous post was now gaining quite a bit of negative attention and“bad” responses. Jimmy tried to find a way to delete it but was unable to. So, he left a comment defending himself against the accusations instead.

Overnight, the negative feedback continued to pour in. Along with additional stories, including one from an ex-girlfriend who claimed that he had assaulted her. Jimmy was completely dumbfounded. “What is with all these people?” He thought that they must have seen him get a little bit of fame and attention and so they became jealous and sought to sabotage him. Nevertheless, Jimmy ignored his now plummeting personality score and focused on the final episode. The finale was a huge success, earning the station their highest ratings ever. Jimmy was promoted and offered a well-deserved, 2-week vacation.

While home enjoying his vacation, he decided he no longer cared about the app and planned to delete it. Before doing so, he curiously checked it one last time. He saw the negative comments and stories had continued and his personality score had plummeted all the way down to the red zone. He laughed and clicked delete. The following day he received another package in the mail, once again wrapped in brown paper with the “P” logo on the top. He sat it on the kitchen table and left it there for the next few days. On the morning he was to return to work, Jimmy let curiosity get the better of him and decided to open it. Inside there was a wooden box and a card. Jimmy opened the card and read aloud “Too Late.” He slowly opened the box and...

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