The nice thing about social media sites like Twitter is that you can get up-to-the-second information at a constant rate. The bad thing is that so many people want to be the ones breaking the news that they will run with a story without actually verifying it. The very funny and ridiculously clever Jonny Sun decided to play a little social experiment to see how fast a fake story could travel and how people would react to it.
Sun posted this tweet:
omg.. Will O. Smith and Jada N. Smith pic.twitter.com/6Dz6d5YB5Y
— jomny sun (@jonnysun) September 14, 2015
If you’re wondering how you never realized Will and Jada named their kids using each of their first and middle names, it’s because it’s not true. Sun made a fake Google result to see how people would respond.
Not even two hours later, parody sites and joke accounts had already ripped off his “discovery” and started posting it as their own:
Will O. Smith and Jada N. Smith pic.twitter.com/Jsh21WI57R
— WorldStarDaily (@WorldStarDaily) September 14, 2015
That’s to be expected, but what was even more fascinating is how many people claimed to have already known this fictitious fact and couldn’t believe it took everyone else so long to realize it.
Made that connection a long time ago https://t.co/UoKJueGFc1
— Mo (@_moflores) September 14, 2015
It took ya’ll this long to figure it out??? https://t.co/sQ1THPBzIW
— Supreme Kai (@KillahbeeStyle) September 14, 2015
Why are people only just realising this? I’m so frustrated https://t.co/3Oz1s6qCq9
— MicΔiaH (@NotSoRatchet) September 14, 2015
i thought everyone knew this……. https://t.co/k7wZSTvutu
— garret (@prtyodd) September 14, 2015
HOW ARE PEOPLE JUST NOW NOTICING THIS?! https://t.co/jsbqPBM62g
— princess leia (@olliepies) September 14, 2015
Noting new here, everybody already knew about this…. https://t.co/7V4w5KDaWa
— Computer face Man (@computerfaceman) September 14, 2015
this is old af and yet people steal it https://t.co/Th49mkP7Fd
— empty (@TagScreamer) September 14, 2015
A few viewers summed up the entire attitude of the Internet nowadays:
@jonnysun this exemplifies what is wrong with the online world today “oh ya, I already knew that made up fact… You’re an idiot”
— Verbal Diary (@VerbalDiary) September 14, 2015
@jonnysun is basically proving the fact that people would rather risk being stupid than do a two second google search to discredit it.
— maya leigh (@mayaporten) September 14, 2015
Basically @jonnysun just made up a fact, tweeted it out and tricked a bunch of joke-stealing accounts and pretentious users in one swoop.
— Ishmael (@Ish_46) September 14, 2015
By the end of the night, it had even made its way over to Facebook, so get ready for all of your aunts to share the news over the next few months.
And in just a few short hours, thousands of people were convinced that Will and Jada Pinkett Smith had completely different names. Remember, just because something is written on a picture and shared on your timeline doesn’t mean it’s true. Question everything and fact-check anything you read. But most importantly, don’t pretend you already knew something just to look cool. Odds are you’re going to look very, very dumb.
