The Celebrity Death Hoax Debunked

For those familiar with the Internet, email and social media, you’ll also be well versed with the celebrity death hoax that often plagues the online world, exploiting our instant connectivity and the rapid speed in which news can travel the globe.

Celebrity death hoaxes have actually been around much longer than we’ve been on the Internet, albeit premature obituaries from yonder were often the result of mistakes as opposed to mischievous pranks. Mark Twain was quoted as telling others that reports of his death were an exaggeration back in 1897 when a newspaper, confusing Twain for his cousin, condemned the author before his time was due.

And the paraphrase “reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated” has since been a popular tune sung by many a celebrity since then.

Morgan Freeman is a popular target for such hoaxes.

The Internet and specifically social media has made the speed in which news travels as instant as a click of the mouse. And this efficiency pays no attention to the validity of content. False rumour and misinformation travels just as fast as their legitimate counterparts.

But it is worth noting that the Internet allows us to debunk misinformation just as quickly as the time it takes to spread it, and this is especially true in the world of celedom. The passing of celebrities is reported instantly by competing media outlets, and their initial news reports are readily available within minutes of such news breaking, and are as easy to find as typing in the web address of your favourite online news resource.

And the lack of any such news story is just as telling. If information reporting of a celebrity death has taken enough time to reach your computer screen then it will also have taken enough time to appear on news media if true.

So take advantage of your real-time digital world in the same way online pranksters take advantage of it. Confirm a story before blindly sharing to your friends, if just to stop you from looking foolish.

But if you want some other reasons not to pass on nonsense, some of these might also get you thinking twice before clicking the Share button.