Validation

Megan felt powerful.

She’d never known this feeling before, as she stared down at the phone in her hand. She’d never held power in her hands before like she did then. The feeling was addictive. 

Megan smiled as she saw the numbers  rising on her screen— the measure of her success mounting. She smiled and thought back to how she had once been that ugly duckling from the classic, cliche fairy tale. All those years of isolation simply made the taste of her victory that much sweeter. Finally, all her efforts had been validated. It was her finest hour; she had triumphed. 

During grade school, Megan had been rejected by her best friend Dayna as soon as Dayna became considered hot by the rest of their grade. They were just entering high school, and While Dayna was hot, along with the brand new group of friends she had suddenly gained, Megan did not make it to that same category. 

Megan was flat chested and had a round nose and her eyes were big and brown and incredibly boring. Her style was plain, her hair was curly and her personality was dull Which reflected in her looks. This all contrasted poorly with the light colour and straight haired, curvy bodied and bubbly personality counterparts from the hot category.  The only redeeming factor about Megan’s appearance was her chin, which was shaped with a subtle little point and coupled with the regal paleness of her complexion, gave her a refined look of sophistication. 

But unlike the ugly duckling, Megan didn’t suddenly became beautiful overnight. Instead, Megan spent many lonely hours studying and doing whatever she could to expand her mind and working to achieve scientific brilliance — all in hopes of discovering the next great technological breakthrough.  

Megan had hoped to use her intelligence to potentially change the world, and her own drab personal life in the process. Megan figured if she could just put her intelligence to work, if she thought hard enough about it, and put enough hours in, perhaps she could finally find the acceptance she so badly craved.

Her need for validation had sublimated into her incessant drive to impact the world.  As it came to be, the technological breakthrough Megan would inevitably make was more a gift to herself than the rest of the world. 

Her eyes were ablaze as she watched the numbers of viewers and likes and subscribers surmounting in front of her. This was simply indicative of the power which her discovery had unleashed upon her and the rest of the world: Certain signal tones which could be programmed into the social media posts she made and then emitted through people’s devices across the world. 

The tones were too subtle to be discernible by the human ear, but just loud enough to still be detected. Once the tones were detected they entered into the brain and created sudden surges of neurotransmitters— floods of chemical cocktails which caused rushes of happiness and euphoria into the person hearing them.

As a result, the person experiencing the sudden rush of positive emotions would immediately associate the feeling with whereever the tone had came from—in this case, the social media posts which Megan had inserted them into. It was textbook classical conditioning; each post Megan made with the tone caused near orgasmic feelings, and so those feelings became associated with her. 

Megan enjoyed her popularity for sometime. She kept her invention a Secret. From anyone else. For her, it was good enough to be recognized; it didnt matter for what.

Megan was content to be recognized and adored for the posts she made consisting of selfies and random, banal moments throughout her day instead of her groundbreaking discovery. Besides, Megan figured, it was better in that sense to keep her invention a secret from everyone in the world, lest they knew how she had been manipulating them. 

At first, Megan didn’t take note of the sudden deaths from radiation that were beginning to spread throughout the world. Megan was too busy enjoying her time in the spotlight to be concerned about world affairs. She was too busy going on dates with celebrities.

The only reason she did ever read take notice because the engagement in her posts had substantially lessened from what they had once been. 

As she looked down her follower list one day, Megan realized, with a sudden shudder, that many of her own followers had been people whom had died from the radiation poisoning. 

It only took a-few experiments for Megan to realize the adverse effects of radiation poisoning her magical signal tone had had upon the rats in her lab.  Megan had then realized without a doubt what had been going on. She knew the deaths had been a direct cause of the signal tones she had developed. 

She realized she had no choice but to stop. Megan very quickly faded from the spotlight. Without the use of her signal tones, Megan’s posts simply weren’t exciting enough, simply not attractive enough, anymore. She was yesterday’s news—just as with the mysterious deaths of radiation poisoning, which had suddenly, and equally as mysteriously as they had begun—ceased from happening. 

As life returned back to normal, without all the attention she had grown to not only love, but depend on, Megan found herself dwindling away into a deep depression. Suddenly she was, once again, powerless. 

One winter afternoon, sitting on her couch in her apartment, Megan scrolled on her social media feed and saw all the more attractive girls, girls like Dayna and others from her high school, girls blessed with almost nothing except good faces and physiques, monopolized the attention of people all over the entire world. Sighing to herself, Megan suddenly got up and left to take a walk. 

It was at a nearby cafe where she saw Justin, a handsome young professional getting his daily 3 PM latte, while leaving the baristas swooning from his piercing blue eyes. Megan had been right behind him while he ordered, and once he did, and she got a look at his face, Megan was, just like the rest, completely taken by him. 

She stood beside him while they both waited for their drinks. Megan kept glancing sideways nervously, hoping, but also dreading, for him to look her way. When he finally did, Megan smiled at him. 

“I like your, uh...watch” she said to her own surprise. 

Justin smiled at her. 

They chatted for a few moments and Megan could hear her heart beating through her chest. 

With his drink in his gloved hand, Justin motioned towards the snowy street. 

“Really a pleasure talking to you. You seem really kind.“

Said Megan, trying to conceal her giddiness and desperation. 

“Here, I’ll punch in  my screen name “ Justin said pitifully.

“Follow me.“

Said Justin pointing over to the phone in Megan’s hand. 

Megan’s arm jolted forward and handed the phone to Justin. He typed in his account name, smiled and said “thanks Kate” to the cashier, said goodbye to Megan, and then left. 

That night Megan scrolled through every single photo Justin had posted in the last seven years. She sent a message to him, and Megan laid in bed staring at her unopened ”hey nice meeting you” text for a while, before putting her phone away, only then to several times after, pick it back up again to check it just in case it had vibrated without her noticing. 

A few more nights went by in the same fashion. Megan wasn’t sleeping or eating. She wasn’t even answering messages. A pang of grief ran through each time her phone went off just to see it was a notification from someone other than Justin. 

Finally, Megan decided to go back to the cafe one Wednesday afternoon. Sure enough, there he was for his 3 pm fix. Megan’s heart got swallowed up into her throat as she saw him by the counter in his long black coat, waiting for his drink. Justin gave her a friendly greeting and before Megan could think of any way to reinitiate conversation with him he wished her a good day and then left. 

There was only one thing left for her to do. Megan made a post on her account. A simple post of her eating ice cream. There wasn’t much special about it, aside from one thing: The signal tone she inserted into the background.  Some minutes later, she had a notification with Justin’s name showing up. 

Megan felt powerful again.