THE ERA OF DIGITAL DISTRUSTNowadays, it’s hard to tell which viral videos on social media are real and which ones are staged. This isn’t exactly new—over a decade ago, people were already creating fake videos that were passed off as authentic. But now, with the obsession of making money and gaining fame online, this phenomenon has exploded.
We used to believe everything. If a video was shocking, we took it at face value without question. Now, on the other hand, we struggle to believe anything. We've been fooled so many times that we've developed an automatic skepticism. It’s like the boy who cried wolf—when something truly extraordinary happens, no one will believe it.
What if one day a real video of aliens appears? We’ll laugh, turn it into memes, and share it as just another viral clip. The age of information overload has made us cynics, and perhaps, when the impossible finally happens, there won’t be anyone left to take it seriously.
A few months ago, a video went viral showing a black man running away from a native chasing him across what looked like the African savanna. “He wants to eat him,” people joked. Now, that same guy is being hunted by another pursuer—this time, looking like something straight out of Avatar. And once again, the internet eats it up. Turns out, both clips come from a parody account, but since most viral content spreads without citing sources—because let’s be honest, tracking down the original post is more tedious than just hitting “share”—these things get taken out of context and passed off as real.
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Heading home after a long, exhausting day at work.