Why internet hoaxes are harmful…

Posted on by Carly Kreppel

The idea of an internet hoax across social media platforms has different effects on different people. From being involved on social media platforms for years of my life, I have seen a fair share of viral hoaxes that went around. The most recent one is the Instagram scandal that celebrities reposted saying how Instagram is going to make everyone’s posts public. Other ones I have seen before are pictures of scary clowns that say, “Repost or this clown will haunt you in your sleep”. As ridiculous as this sounds, these hoax’s evoke fear in people on the social media platforms. Therefore, I believe these internet hoaxes are harmful to society. When people see how viral these hoaxes get, it scares them into reposting, which just makes a cycle for it to get more viral. Hoaxes like the ones below are perfect examples of how they go viral and they scare people of all ages into reposting. In some cases, viral hoaxes can be harmless, but in most cases and in ones that I have seen, they cause fear and get attention throughout several platform. Usually, these hoaxes spread fast and all at once, causing a scene on all social media platforms. As spoken about in an article, younger children growing up with these internet hoaxes, have really been affected by them causing harmful thoughts.

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