I found an extremely bizarre internet survey

Let me start off by saying I'm not exactly the most tech-savvy person. I have a laptop and a cell phone, both of which are on the cheap side, but I use them for pretty much the basics - Facebook, Instagram, sometimes a game or two, and the occasional YouTube video to fall asleep to. My point in saying all this is that when I see an ad on Facebook, I don't think anything of it. My husband always makes fun of me because I actually click on those "personality test" ads, but I figure, hey, why not, right? It's something to do. <br><br>So one night after a particularly long day at work, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed, and I noticed an ad on the sidebar for a rather unusual survey. I'd never been much of a gambler, but it promised a $100 Amazon gift card if I took the time to answer a small list of questions. I've always been the type to take those "which Disney character are you" tests, so I figured this would be just as interesting. <br><br>I clicked on the ad, and was immediately redirected to another website. I think in hindsight, I should have been suspicious of the whole thing, but I figured Facebook wouldn't let anything too malicious on their website. Maybe they wouldn't. I don't know. <br><br>It was a very simple website, basically just a collection of questions that seemed...different. I'll list them out for you, because I found them all so bizarre. <br><br>1: What is your favorite color? (Red, blue, green, yellow, brown, gray, or "other") <br>2: What is your occupation? <br>3: What is your height and weight? <br>4: What is your favorite animal? <br>5: What is your favorite food? <br>6: What is your favorite hobby? <br>7: Do you prefer larger or smaller objects? <br>8: The "scary" and "not scary" portions of a movie occur at what points in the movie? <br>9: How often do you bathe? <br>10: What is your favorite season? <br>11: How many hours per day do you spend sleeping? <br>12: What kind of music do you like? <br>13: Do you like children? <br>14: How many people are in the room with you? <br>15: What time is it?<br><br>Kind of weird questions, right? I didn't really think anything of them, partly because I was tired and just wanted the damn gift card, and partly because I assumed they were stock questions from some overarching database of surveys. <br><br>In retrospect, I don't know how I was so oblivious as to not notice how unusual the questions were. Looking back now, I can see the trend in questions 7 and 8 - how big are you compared to us? How scared are you during the parts of the movie when we show up? I also see the similarity in questions 3 and 11 - how big are you, and how long do you sleep? But at the time, I didn't think anything of it. I figured it was all just random. <br><br>I answered the questions, clicked the final "submit" button, and was redirected to a long, intricately worded paragraph essentially telling me that I had been automatically entered into a drawing for the gift card. I closed the laptop, climbed into bed, and went to sleep. <br><br>The next day, it was all I could think about. There was something about it that was so strange, so off-putting. My coworkers commented that I seemed a little out of it, and I remember pausing for a long time when they asked me what was wrong. I almost told them about the whole thing, but it all felt so...silly. So I just shook my head and told them that I was fine. <br><br>That night, I got a notification on my phone from Amazon. My gift card had been purchased, and been sent to my email address. I checked my email, and sure enough, there it was. The promised $100, plus tax. <br><br>I didn't use it. I have no idea why, I just didn't. <br><br>I didn't think about the whole thing again until a few nights later, when I was scrolling through Facebook on my cell phone. The same ad popped up on my Facebook homepage, and I stopped scrolling. I stared at it for a long time, wondering if I should take the survey again. <br><br>I went with my gut instinct and clicked on the ad again. I clicked through to the website, just to see if it was the same questions as last time. To my surprise, the website was completely blank except for a short paragraph of text. <br><br>"We have decided that you are not what we are looking for. You will not be contacted again. Goodbye."<br><br>I was a little shocked by that, since I had never been so abruptly "dumped", as it were. But I didn't really think much of it until a few days ago, when I was scrolling through Chambers and had an idea. I clicked on the survey link again, hoping it had been updated since my last visit. <br><br>It had. It was once again a list of questions, but they were all different from the ones the first time I visited. I'll list them out below. <br><br>1: Which of the following do you consider yourself? Human, demon, ghost, alien, fairy, animal, angel, other <br>2: What time was it when you answered these questions? <br>3: What is your favorite smell? <br>4: What is the weather like outside? <br>5: What is your favorite planet? <br>6: How many limbs do you have? <br>7: What do you think of humans? <br>8: Which of the following do you prefer - the forest, the ocean, the desert, the mountains, a field, or the city? <br>9: How many other creatures are in the room with you? <br>10: How many eyes do you have? <br>11: How high can you jump? <br>12: How long are you? <br>13: What do you call yourself? <br>14: What is your favorite taste? <br>15: How tall are the objects around you?<br><br>Now, looking back, I realize that I'm a human answering what seems to be a very extensive set of questions about the type of planet my race inhabits, what limbs and senses we have, how tall we are compared to the environment around us. It makes sense, in retrospect, but at the time I was still stupid as to what this all meant. <br><br>I answered the questions, and once again was redirected to the same page as before, assuring me that I had been entered into the drawing. <br><br>But this time, I noticed something different. On the bottom of the page, in letters so tiny that I could hardly see them, was a message: <br><br>"To see more information, click on the three vertical dots in the corner of the screen and select "view page source"."<br><br>I did, and scrolled all the way to the bottom of the page. There was a message there that I'm not about to forget anytime soon. <br><br>"You are not the chosen species. This is the final survey you will be contacted for. Goodbye. Click here to learn more." <br><br>I hesitated for a moment, wondering what I was getting myself into. But my curiosity was eating at me, and I decided to go for it. <br><br>The website redirected me to an extremely long, well-written article that essentially confirmed my worst fears. <br><br>I won't go through the entire article here. The basic idea was this: Earth was being considered as a possible candidate for some sort of intergalactic movie where aliens were the protagonists and humans were the antagonists - the "monsters". I won't go into too much detail into the article, but it said that many planets with many different species had been scouted in the past, but most humans had many traits that were good for the movie - we were relatively small and weak compared to the aliens who would be starring in the movie, and we had sharp teeth and fingernails that we used for a variety of purposes. <br><br>The article essentially concluded by saying that humans were not the best choice for this movie. While we were small and relatively weak, we were incredibly intelligent, and were capable of complex thought that would be difficult to portray in a movie. We also had a tendency to sympathize with those around us, meaning that when the aliens inevitably encountered a stray child or someone who was disabled, there was a chance it would go against its "monster" character. <br><br>Last night, I was scrolling through my Facebook homepage again, and the same ad showed up. I stopped scrolling, and stared at it for a long time, half expecting it to be the "you are not the chosen species" message again. <br><br>But it wasn't. <br><br>I clicked on it anyway, curious as to what questions they would ask this time. When I clicked through to the website, I noticed something different. Instead of a long list of questions, there was only one: <br><br>"You were not chosen as the monster for our movie. Would you like to consider becoming the hero instead?" <br><br>I've stared at that question on my screen for the last hour. I don't know what to do. My husband and kids are all asleep, and I'm seriously considering clicking yes. <br><br>What the hell have I gotten myself into?