How irresponsible! Someone, or some people, decided it’d be funny to pull a prank on Instagram users. This hoax falsely claimed that Instagram was going to make all of users’ photos and deleted messages made public. This fake news spread fast, as dozens of celebrities voiced their concerns and fell for the hoax. But why […]
Read more "Privacy Scare Turns Out to be Fake!"Are social media hoaxes a continued version of the “chain mail” concept? As a 10-year-old, I received daily emails threatening bad luck for 50 years unless I forward the messages to 10 friends – and little-old-me believed every word. As I’ve matured, I have learned to distinguish the true from the false. But when statements […]
Read more "From Chain Mail to Internet Hoaxes – The Never-Ending Phenomenon"My mother sent Instagram’s “viral hoax” in my families group chat in fear of what will happen with the content on our Instagram accounts. She sent us the photo that explained that “tomorrow starts the new Instagram rule where they can use your photos.” My mom even re-posted it herself, until my siblings and I […]
Read more "My Mom Fell for Instagram “Hoax”"As we create memes and share hoaxes with our friends and family on the internet, ask yourself this: is this hoax potentially dangerous if my grandma sees it? Will my grandma share fake news on her Facebook feed? People create internet hoaxes for a variety of reasons. One of the most popular reasons is to […]
Read more "Is this Hoax a Danger to My Grandma?"Social media is a way to make connections, share ideas, content, and stories. However, because of its partial anonymity and ability to instantly share, it enables the spreading false information to a wide audience at a rapid speed. Viral hoaxes have become a regular occurrence, flooding social media platforms. These hoaxes are easy to believe, […]
Read more "You Might Be Smarter than a 5th Grader… But Are You Smarter than a Viral Hoax?"I think that people create internet hoaxes to get attention from others and because they know people will usually fall for it. The internet is littered with so much information that it can be very hard to tell what is fake and what is real, especially if you’re not really looking for it. Professor Whitney […]
Read more "#stophoaxes2k19"Internet hoaxes have the ability to blow up social media and push any type of content someone wants the public to believe. There are many reasons someone would want to spread false information that ends up becoming viral. In some cases, the creator might want to draw attention to something people are uninformed about. The […]
Read more "Social Media Hacks: A Viral Phenomenon"Leave it to Instagram users to convince each other that the application is changing their privacy policy rather than the message come from the company itself. Towards the end of last month, Instagram was hit with a viral hoax stating that their policies are changing and your posts, comments, or direct messages (even deleted ones) […]
Read more "Instagram: PUBLIC OR PUBLIC?"It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new…Instagram hoax. Since the dawn of the internet, users (corporations and bored individuals alike) have used the web to draw attention to issues, causes, or outright outlandish things through hoaxes. From the Montauk Monster to the Blair Witch Project, the internet has proven its capability […]
Read more "Generation Hoax: Did you fall for it?"Whether you consider yourself an avid social media user, or a more infrequent online browser, you have most likely crossed paths with some sort of internet hoax. An internet hoax is essentially a viral message spread via the internet, that deliberately distributes and circulates a certain falsehood. Sometimes, these hoaxes present as a silly, light-hearted […]
Read more "Internet Hoaxes: Harmless or Harmful?"