The Mystery Glitch (Dylan Auzenne)

## Legend Summary

The first thing a lot of people may ask is what is an urban legend? An urban legend is typically a scary or mysterious story that has been passed around from person to person and is thought to be the truth. Urban legends can range from a rumored mysterious toe nail that kills people to dragons that fly around and spit fire out of their mouth. Practically anything can become an urban legend if it has mystery surrounding it and there is thought to be some truth about it. The urban legend I will be discussing today is the urban legend of the Glitch in the Matrix (“The Mystery Glitch”). Glitches are typically things that “is observable but unintended artifacts, which defy known laws of physics”(Turchin). Glitches are usually hard to troubleshoot because they are a short lived fault that seems to correct itself, but in real life if they are ‘glitches in the matrix’ what can you even do to comprehend and try to fix those faults?

## History

This legend all started in 1999 when the movie The Matrix came out. The Matrix is a computer simulated world that is supposed to appear like the modern day world we have today. In the movie the heroes would experience all sorts of different things that just did not make any logical sense, and making up some sort of explanation for this occurrence would be very difficult hence making people question reality. The computer program would appear to have glitches, but in all actuality these glitches were trying to trap the heroes and make less of them. In recent years a lot of people have started to wonder and question a lot of these glitches and glitches of their own that they have experienced. These ideas of glitches being talked about in a manner of urban legends rather than an understanding of science has allowed the urban legend to take off in popularity. The main space that allowed people to talk amongst each other and share their own ideas and stories of this urban legend is Reddit. The Reddit community has had a big impact on the glitch in the matrix urban legend many years after the actual movie came out.

## Adaptations

While scrolling across Reddit looking for stories about glitches in the matrix, I came across a subreddit called r/Glitch\_in\_the\_Matrix. This subreddit had many stories of people who thought they experienced glitches in the matrix and chose to come here and share. One story someone from a throwaway account made was about how they were going to a grocery store they usually did not go to with their mom. As they were driving away from the grocery store they noticed a man on a corner that resembled Einstein wearing a tracksuit. The man looked directly at them and stared for a few seconds as he crossed the street. The narrator soon forgets about the incident until five minutes later a couple of blocks away where they notice the same man crossing a street. The man then turns towards them and stares at them. Soon after that the narrator claims that he “glitched ahead of us a total of three times before it stopped” (Reddit). The narrator then asks their mom if they saw that also, and the mom concerningly tells them to look away and not take any notice of it. This concluded the experience that the narrator had, but it “[s]till gives [the narrator] the jeebies all these years later, and [they have] never seen him since that day” (Reddit).

## Analysis of Adaptations

Just from that one story that we read, there was a lot to unpack and a lot of questions that we may have towards the narrator. A couple of questions are “What made them go to this grocery store that they never go to, and was it by chance that they experienced this?”, “Did they ever went back to this grocery store again?”, “Was this story true or could it have an alternate logical meaning?”. There even begs the question of could the man have run there, beat traffic, and just so happen to notice them again? This story was only posted yesterday so there is not many feedback in the comment section, but some people are trying to make logistical reasonings also, and even one jokingly said “If he looked like einstein, then he looked like doc brown...so it was doc brown using the DeLorean to mess with you- glitch explained 🙃” (Reddit).

## Conclusion

In the recent years there has been a lot of popularity on glitches in the matrix, and some may look/sound real, while others may not. Because it is an urban legend we may never get definite evidence to support either one of these claims. Overall it is very much so fun and thrilling to hear about them, and now I ask, has any of you ever experienced a glitch in the matrix?

## Work Cited

* “Dive into Anything.” Reddit, www.reddit.com/r/Glitch\_in\_the\_Matrix/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.
* “Just Came across This Sub and I Have a Small Glitch to Share.” Reddit, www.reddit.com/r/Glitch\_in\_the\_Matrix/comments/175u9s1/just\_came\_across\_this\_sub\_and\_i\_have\_a\_small/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.
* Turchin, Alexey. “Philarchive.Org.” Glitch in the Maxtrix, philarchive.org/archive/TURGIT. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.