Offended: I'm Feeling Lucky

I think it's a given that most people know the function of the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on Google. Prior to 2012, it's been used to go directly to the first link the search engine could find and thus bypasses all the other search options. Sometimes it gets you were you want to go, sometimes it doesn't.
But before that, the choices were a lot more random.
I guess the update was to make the searches more ideal and accurate to the typed phrase or website, so it was no longer like the search engine equivalent to a roulette game.
I like to think the change was made because of more unsettling circumstances.
In 2009, I was a thirteen year old boy in an all-boys grammar school. It was pretty tough, considering the school also specialised in sports, so you could probably guess that most boys who went there were obsessed with all sorts of "macho" crap, and anyone else who didn't succumb to this ideal were shunned as losers.
I guess in a sense I was in the middle.
I mean, I was bullied a lot, but I wasn't like the most unpopular kid at school. Plus I did have friends here and there, though most of them are kids who got picked on as well.
Now I'm saying all this because one thing the more "manly" of the boys liked to do was make other kids do ridiculous dares, and the most popular venue to do this was during I.T class.
I'm pretty sure no one did any actual work there, including myself. I couldn't even remember the programs we were supposed to be working on. I'm pretty sure it was Microsoft Excel, but I can't be sure.
But during those classes, the teacher would usually just sit by his or her desk and do whatever, and anyone not in the teacher's direct line of sight had the freedom to explore the web instead of doing work. Usually they'd go on flash games, but sometimes they'd create dares for the person next to them.
I guess word gets around our school of weird and obscure websites (mostly porn, of course) and dare other kids to go on it, only for the monitor to get a virus and the embarrassing video would stay on screen for the whole class to see, including the teacher. I remember one kid was even dared to print out a dozen pornographic images, but was caught out and suspended for a week.
One macho challenge was to get the other boy to go on Google Images and search up vaginas and the dreaded "Blue Waffle".
But perhaps the most fucked up dare created was the Offended, I'm Feeling Lucky Challenge.
I'll tell you about my experience of it, during one I.T class.
I was bored and messing about on Google Images, usual nerdy stuff I guess. Looking up pictures of monsters and the such.
One kid was sat next to me, named Brandon. He was one of the more popular boys at school, and could be an asshole sometimes, but he was probably more decent and friendly than the other guys there.
So he must have noticed me on Google Images, and I could see from my peripheral vision that he was leaning closer. I had a feeling I knew what was gonna happen next.
He innocently asked me what I was doing, and I lied and said it was for an Art assignment. He did his usual small-talk routine, luring me into a false sense of security, but I knew he was going to ask me to do something, perhaps search up some more porn images and have a good laugh while I did it with blushing cheeks and averted eyes.
It's kinda sad now, knowing how at that age we found boobs and penises hysterical.
But instead, he asked me to go back to the Google homepage.
I sighed and did what he wanted. I should have protested, but I wasn't going to argue with one of the cool kids, as I knew I'd get hell for chickening out on one of these stupid dares. 
He then told me to type in the word "Offended", but not to go on the usual search, but to instead press "I'm Feeling Lucky".
At the time, I never pressed that button before, nor did I know what it was really used for on Google, so I was a little nervous to see what happened.
Now usually, during these dares, the guy making the dare would lie to encourage the kid he was daring, like telling him that it was a website to cool games they could play, when really it was hardcore porn.
However, he didn't say anything like that to me. 
I guess some of the other kids heard Brandon dare me, and spun around to watch my imminent embarrassment.
 
So I did what he said and clicked the button, and at first I was confused. The first thing that showed up was that stupid Limecat meme, right in the middle of the screen.
I remember scoffing and looking back at Brandon, asking him if he was being serious.
He just told me to just scroll down.
"Try and scroll down to the bottom" he said.
So I scrolled.
There were several blank image boxes, pretty much in the same format as Google Images. I'm not sure why they were all blank when I scrolled. I guess they were just loading. But when the images did begin showing up, I was horrified.
Some of the most sickening shit I've seen. Out of reaction, I turned my head away from the screen, feeling my stomach lurch as well, which of course prompted all the other boys watching to start laughing at me. I turned back and saw that Brandon was laughing as well. Though he wasn't looking at the screen either.
It's hard to describe fully what's on that page.
I can imagine it being pretty much all the gruesome, messed up shit people could find on the deep web, yet it was all on a Google search somehow.
I didn't see the page for even a full second before I turned around in disgust, but somehow all the images must have been burnt into my head, deep in my subconscious, from what my innocent mind at the time tried to hide.
I think I can remember some:
A large burning crucifix in a field,
a naked, bruised body of what I assumed was a woman from the back, hanging out of the trunk of a car,
a close up of a caved-in head lying on the pavement in a pool of it's own brain matter,
several images of bloodied, skinned corpses that I wasn't sure if they were humans or animals,
and a plastic trash bag, with what looked like piles of flesh and organs inside, as the camera was looking into the bag to show the contents.
Now, I know when this is all written down or read out, it doesn't sound that scary. And it isn't, in all honesty.
To me, the most unsettling part isn't the gore itself.
What freaks me out was that those pictures were all too real.
As a kid, I tried to rationalise that those were just gore effects from a movie. But now that I've seen gory scenes in movies, I don't believe that's the case.
When I was a kid, I simply laughed it off.
As a young adult, I'm horrified that shit like this happens, that people and animals are killed and mutilated and posted online for the world to see.
There's some fucked up people in the world.
And come to think of it, I hadn't even seen all the images, and the ones I do remember I'm not even too sure if that was what I had actually seen, or if my mind just jumbled up and rearranged the horror in other ways than I initially remember.
If you're of a curious mind, you'd probably go look it up yourself.
I'm not sure if that 'feature' or what ever the hell you can call it has been removed or if all the images have been taken down since 2010, and to be honest, I really don't want to search it up myself.
I'm not a fan of gore.
Especially if it's real gore, and real people were involved.
But if you're really to take a plunge for yourself, simply type "Offended" on Google, and press "I'm Feeling Lucky".
In fact, I think it'll be fitting if I DARE you to do it.
No, in fact...I DOUBLE DARE you.
Category:Computers and Internet
Category:NSFW
Category:Dead Memes
Category:Memes
Category:Death
Category:Classic