Hoaxes keep sucking us in

There’s a sucker born every minute – or so the adage goes. But sometimes being a sucker is fun, or, at the very least, offers a revealing glimpse into who we as a society are today.After all, in an era of YouTube, runaway bloggers and 24/7 celebrity gossip – we can’t even determine whether Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn’s relationship is real or simply a marketing campaign, and really, why do we care?The question must be posed: Are we gullible or just looking for ways to be amused?Both, experts say.“We’re easily fooled, but we just move on to the next thing,” says Tracy Langlands, who teaches marketing at the University of Phoenix in Sacramento.“Our attention span is small because there’s such a mass of information available.”

Alex Boese, author of “Hippo Eats Dwarf: A Field Guide to Hoaxes,” agrees.“(Mass media) makes this a ripe time for getting fooled,” Boese says, on the phone recently from San Diego.The good news?Mass media “also makes it easier for us to debunk (hoaxes),” he says.

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Hoaxes are a brilliant way to throw people off the truth,....sooner or later people become fustrated and disillussioned therefore loosing interest altogether. Making the 'truth' when it is presented hard to accept.

Almost like the story of ''The boy who cryed wolf''.

The publicity hoax is as old as mankind; appearently homo sapians love to be fooled. We can't get enough.

Invention of the printed word helped the hoaxer spread his/her message further to lands far away from the author and place of origin.

In the 1500's explorer's stories of dragons, witches and strange creatures were captivating in literary form but damn near intoxicating in rumor form. These adventures were captured in books from those who were "actually there to see the anomaly" with a first hand account of all that hppened.

Stories read in newspapers of the 1800 told of vampires roaming the countryside of Europe and even shows up in early New England and New Orleans folklore. In print.

Since the early 1990's hoaxes and folklore has taken a new form via the internet. Not a day goes by where I don't receive an email forward from someone stating that some kid somewhere is dying of cancer and needs our help, something everyone buys is now poisonous, signing an online petition for "fill in the blank" will change the world or I get a message saying that if I don't forward this message to at least ten people I will die in a fiery car crash in less than 12 hours for not obeying.

A lot has changed. Nothing has changed. Attention-getters will do as they do; we need to learn to know better.

All I can add is that I wish that they would come up with some decent hoaxes at least and not the lame attempts that normally abound and expect people to believe them that it is true. How gullible are we really?

People will believe what they want to. If the desire is there for a video or picture to be true than it is. Girty is right about those of us who don't want to be fooled to learn better. Shame we have to examine everything under a microscope because of the clever technology these days.

I think hoaxers are a bunch of slime. By mudding the waters with their BS they cloud real facts. And make uneducated people have the wrong idea about things. I think it speaks to a persons personality short comings if they like to hoax people. Making a fool of someone is never a good thing.

Hoaxes are always good for a laugh.

One day I hope to be involved in a major one to see how many people fall for it.

Its an example of weak character that you want to be involved in a hoax. People are genuinely hurt everyday by thoughtless people trying to amuse themselves. Would you feel the same if a hoax was perpetrated on you?