Throughout my time online, I’ve seen many hoaxes on social media. It was mainly just hoaxes about popular shows or video games, claiming a “secret” had been found in them. One popular example that I remember seeing is someone misread a sign in the video game “Super Mario 64.” That there was a secret way to unlock Luigi in the game when it simply was not possible. It was a harmless, silly hoax; although many people believed this and tried to unlock this character in the game. There are lots of other dangerous hoaxes that caused harm to people because they believed it was real. An example of this would be the hoax that Slenderman is real, and how some little girls decided to stab their friend to make him appear. This hoax was harmful because it made children think that doing harmful things to other people would make a fictional character appear. It reminds me of Bloody Mary and the mirror hoax, but significantly more dangerous. People are easily influenced, and hoaxes that make people, especially children, believe that some form of harm would make this hoax happen is very dangerous. Luckily, times have changed, and it is a lot easier to spot hoaxes. Recently, there haven’t been any hoaxes that have been dangerous that I know of. Hopefully these types of hoaxes have died down.
Unfortunately, there are too many people that believe in these hoaxes. They are harmful and they tend to target the older generations because they did not grow up with the internet Therefore, they are unaware of the dangers out there. It is a sad reality, but I hope more people are being made aware of them causing less people to fall for them. Death hoaxes are also terrible and can do a lot of damage. I don’t understand what someone would have to gain from something like that, but it is a cruel thing to do. I agree with you. I hope these hoaxes will one day stop or at least people will stop believing them.
Absolutely! I think some hoaxes are very silly, but I wish it stayed that way instead of causing harm to people.
Hoaxes sometimes aren’t even harmless. They can cause people to experience different negative emotions. Emotions like anxiety and fear. Especially when there are certain people on the internet that don’t understand when something is a hoax, or they don’t even know what a hoax is. People need to be more careful about what they put on the internet.
I think hoaxes are very harmful even in silly situations like video games because of the thought that something is plausible when it really isn’t and someone could waste their time trying to find it. I think the result of it never happening and feeling lied to is the harm in this situation.
What can hoaxes tell us about society? I think it’s a great representation of how quickly and easily misinformation can be spread to the point where it becomes harmful. I wish there were more education, especially in younger generations so that we can prevent dangerous events like the one you mentioned from happening. I also believe that social media plays a big role in the development and growth of false information because of how accesible it is.
I agree! I think content creators should definitely address these issues to spread awareness due to how influencing it is. I believe hoaxes are just a way for people to easily gain clout and popularity because of some extravagant finding. It shows how easily influenced people can be through untrustworthy sources.
In my experience, Hoaxes in video games could also be the result of someone who doesnt want to do their research on DLC or molded content and that can lead to people believing in something that isn’t true. I love video games but I get frustrated when I realized that I have to lay an additional fee on top of what I originally paid just to have that extra item, but other times I acknowledge its not worth it. Companies should probably do a better job at acknowledging and crediting talented models though and to include such things into their original games to make the experience better. Better marketing scheme in the end at least in my mind!
I agree! I like this take on hoaxes that we all kind of have a blame. Companies for not acknowledging problem, and people for easily being influenced.