Hi Hive,
I have always been one of those people who enjoy a good scare movies filled with shadows, whispers, and things that shouldn’t exist. But there is a clear boundary I have always trusted because when the screen goes off, then the fear ends. Or at least, that’s what I used to believe.
pixabay
Living in today’s digital world, my life revolves around screens, my phone, my laptop, and the constant hum of connectivity. Work, communication, even relaxation, most it all happens online. So, imagining a ghost not in an abandoned house but inside my device feels disturbingly close to reality.
Let’s say a colleague of mine, someone I worked closely with, suddenly passes away in a tragic accident for instance. We shared files, messages, late-night brainstorming sessions. Then one fateful day, after their death, something strange starts happening. My laptop flickers at odd hours. Files open on their own. Messages appear, unfinished sentences we once discussed, now completed in ways I never wrote.
At first, I’d try to rationalize it. Maybe it's a glitch or system malware. Or maybe even my own fatigue is playing tricks on me. But when the patterns become too personal, when the “presence” responds in ways only that colleague could. Then I feel a kind of dramatic silent fear and deeply unsettling.
Would I panic? Yes, but probably not instantly. I think my first reaction would be curiosity mixed with denial. I will try to communicate, test it, understand it. But the moment it crosses into something invasive such as changing files, appearing without control, interfering with my day to day activities, and that’s when fear would settling in .
Escaping a “digital ghost” would not be as simple as leaving just my room. I will disconnect everything, shut down devices, change networks and maybe even abandon certain accounts entirely for the time being. Unlike a physical haunting, this one follows you through every login, every connection.
But what would disturb me the most is the familiarity and not the the fear itself. The idea that someone I once knew, someone human, is now reduced to a presence in code and signals. That blurs the line between memory and reality in a way that feels far more chilling than any horror movie.
But in the end, I don’t think I will see it as normal. Not at all. It would force me to question not just technology, but what it means to truly “leave” this world. And maybe, just maybe, I will start looking at my screen a little bit differently and wondering if something, or someone, is looking back.
