America’s Obsession with Fake Deaths and Death Hoaxes
The Media's Influence Not only are people faking their own deaths on purpose, but there are other people who create death hoaxes for celebrities who don’t want to die, and haven’t actually died yet. The fast pasted media is a large contributor to this growing issue because they are constantly looking for top stories without fact checking first. Take the social media site Twitter for example, users are generating death rumors about celebrities without warning or thought, and with no evidence or facts to support their claim. Soon the claim is spreading like wildfire throughout the social media site without any proof or confirmation of the accuracy of this report. A CNN reporter, John D. Sutter, said that the internet has so greatly accelerated the speed that information flows to the public, that it’s making it very difficult to verify what’s true and what may be false. This clarifies how rumors start, but it doesn’t give an explanation as to why people would want to create these death hoaxes in the first place.
False Military Death Claims In Montreal Canada for example, Lieutenant Dennis Noel of Canadian Forces is investigating fake calls to military families from a man who informs them that their loved ones have been killed in Afghanistan. This type of death hoax surpasses all moral boundaries and completely ruins military family’s hope of survival for their loved one. This is not something that people should take lightly, this is a major crime and this man should be punished. The wives of these soldiers told the Lieutenant that the man on the phone stated that their husbands have been killed in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device. This is also sadly happening with military families in Australia, and the Australian Defense Force believe that the callers are identifying these soldiers though photos posted on social networking sites, such as Facebook. They recommend that everyone should secure their social networking sites to confirm that their information isn’t seen by public eyes.
Why people would fake their death? Have you ever been in such a crisis that the thought of killing yourself is the only way you can escape your problems? Many people feel trapped and alone when they are approached by a challenging moment that could alter their lives forever. Faking your own death is an option many have considered and pursued when confronted about committing fraudulency, collecting life insurance money illegally, or perpetrating some other high crime. Some people are lucky enough to be able to flee the real world without anyone noticing by faking their own death, while others are caught in a mere two months after allegedly dying. The media is quick to report any death scandals they come across, whether it is an accurate report or not.
Motive Behind Creating False Death Claims Carlin Flora, a journalist for Psychology Today, wrote that she believes the motive behind producing a false death claim to social media sites is for attention more than anything else. Attention from other social media users or the possible attention from the actual celebrity when they are forced to affirm their well-being to the public. Carlin Flora also states that the authors of these death hoaxes then feel as though they have been “seen” by the celebrity, even if it’s in a negative way. The faux-death toll has expanded recently with claims that Cher, Chris Brown, Tiger Woods, Jackie Chan, Adam Sandler, Charlie Sheen, Morgan Freedmen, Owen Wilson and many more are dead. These assertions on Twitter are short lived, and are quickly amended by the celebrity themselves or their PR directors. These claims are mostly harmless because they get corrected so quickly and people forget about them, but some death hoaxes have damaged hope and brought more pain onto a family than anyone deserves.