The founder of the 'Yeah That Definitely Happened' page told Bored Panda that it is difficult to decide what to post and what to ignore. "People's ideas of what is believable and what isn't are all very different. I like to stay on the safe side and post the stories that I'm sure aren't possible at all and are also just entertaining and funny," Jordanna told Bored Panda. She explained what her process is when deciding whether or not to feature a post on the account.
"You'll notice a lot of our posts involve clapping, or people getting congratulated on something that's really cringey or mundane. Usually, we look for those things, or we look for things that seem really improbable. Sometimes, I won't post a story cause I'll think, 'Nah, that definitely could have happened.' But usually, I will post stories that seem to get called out as fake consistently," she said.
Jordanna definitely believes that people make up fake posts online for attention and validation. "A lot of stories, I feel, are exaggerated, and are based on things that almost happened," she said that many people embellish the truth based on what they hope would have happened.
"Like perhaps OP got insulted and then came up with a great comeback later, and decided to write the story up and post it. I feel like the attention they get from it validates them and makes them feel important, and just writing the scenario out often gives them more power in that situation, too. They have control over the narrative now and can change it to suit them," she shared her thoughts with Bored Panda.
According to Jordanna, everyone has an angle and an agenda. "A lot of stories are also written with the intention of making certain groups of people look bad. Sexist men, for example, may write a story that makes a feminist look incredibly bad (fake encounters with a rad fem.) Or a radical feminist might exaggerate their encounters with men to push the idea that 'all men are bad.' Transphobes and racists often do the same. A lot of extremists post stories, especially on sites such as Reddit, I've found, in order to push their extreme personal views and back them up with an encounter that never happened."
Hollywood's Ultimate Insider, Mike, told Bored Panda that one way to realize that someone's unable to balance the role of social media in their lives is that they begin to lie or bend the truth online.
"A good sign of people going overboard in seeking attention and recognition on social media is when they start exaggerating or making things up. If you find yourself doing that, stop and check yourself, and maybe realign your priorities in life," he suggested.
Mike also shared with Bored Panda some ways to tell if a certain tweet or post might be made up. It's a good thing to trust your gut, as well as your mind. "If a post seems particularly outrageous, or too good to be true, it may be made up. Even if someone else is posting the same thing, that doesn’t make it true, because it could simply be a re-post from the original poster," the expert said.
"Your instincts can usually tell you when something is made up, and old-fashioned online sleuthing can usually confirm it," Mike told us.
The ‘Yeah That Definitely Happened’ Instagram page has just over 78k followers and invites them to send in their own submissions. So if you happen to stumble across something that fits the mood of the project, consider sending the screenshot over to the creator of the page.
However, one thing that they ask of their fans is that they check the posts to see if the particular screenshot has been posted before. If it has, it’s best to find something else to share. After all, fresh content is king, while reposting the same things over and over frequently would get stale quickly.
There’s no shortage of misinformation, fake news, and simply downright lies on the internet. While some people clearly make stuff up to get attention, others do it with different goals in mind, whether they’re political, social, or other.
Joseph M. Pierre, a professor of psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, previously spoke to Bored Panda about conspiracy theories and the type of people who believe in misinformation.
Professor Pierre told us that conspiracy theorists tend to focus on certain historical events when choosing to twist the truth for whatever goals they have in mind.
He also noted that the only spike of conspiracy theories in recent modern history was during the communist ‘red scare’ in the 1950s.
“It is true that certain historical events do tend to attract conspiracy theories and there is evidence that times of societal upheaval or crisis when people are feeling unsafe and desperate for clarity offer a kind of fertile soil for conspiracy theory beliefs,” he told Bored Panda.
“Over the past 60 years, the assassination of JFK, the death of Princess Diana, and 9/11 are the most obvious examples of national traumas surrounded by conspiracy theory beliefs,” the expert went into detail.
