Photography: Mark Sommerfeld

Inside the Social Media Cult That Convinces Young People to Give Up Everything

The DayLife Army always seemed like a troll. Then it became a nightmare.

Emilie Friedlander and Joy Crane
Published in
42 min readJun 24, 2020

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It started with a tweet. In the fall of 2013, Matthew had recently turned 18 and was just finishing up his first semester at a college in Chicago. A freshman music business student with a happy-go-lucky laugh and…

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Emilie Friedlander and Joy Crane
OneZero

Emilie is a freelance journalist and editor who reports on culture and the internet. Joy is a freelance journalist focused on science, technology, and society.