Hoaxes: Sometimes frivolous, sometimes not

Posted on by Breanna Coey

The majority of viral online hoaxes are pretty foolish. I believe most of them simply stem from a desire for excitement, many people are merely bored and enjoy stirring up drama. But could some of these hoaxes actually mean something more?

Hoaxes can be traced back hundreds of years ago. The Dreadnought hoax executed by  Horace de Vere Cole in 1910, for example, was a practical joke pulled on the Royal British Navy, tricking them into faking delegation. Cole was an alienated intellectual making fun of the Royal Navy at the height of its power. So in many ways hoaxes are an effort to reclaim power and the public space, taking back what commercialism and politics have taken from the people.

Banksy is another much more modern example of someone reclaiming public consciousness from advertising, political rhetoric and normalized middle-class numbness. It is evident that hoaxes existed well before social media but social media has put the tool of mass communications into the hands of just about anybody, hence the widespread and “easy” nature of hoaxes nowadays. Overall the primary objectives of a good hoax are subversive in nature, these online pranksters, in general, are motivated by the desire to be first to violate what is supposed to be inviolate.

 

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