This article is in regards to a woman that posed on the internet as a girl who was extremely ill and eventually died. The woman portrayed a victional charecter on an internet blog. The woman never led on that it was a fictional charecter. This lead to a lot of people feeling upset since they believed that the fictional charecter was real.
I agree with the asserstion in the reading that this charecter would have been o.k. to portray if it was noted that the blog was fictional. Debbie Swenson intentionally misled people to believe that her daughter was ill. This is completely wrong of people to do. In my opinion. I find it interesting that someone would even attempt to mislead people.
The fact that the reading indicates two outcomes is what I learned. Two sides were taken. Those that labled Debbie Swanson as a lunatic and others that supported and still believed in the illness of the child.
The other outcome that I saw in this is the internet should be a place of distrust, even though most people would not portray themselves as anything more than what they are. There will be and are people that are out there that are devious though.
I totally agree with your opinion on what is right and wrong according to the Swenson story. Not only did Debbie not inform readers that she was writing a fictional story, she tried to gain sympathy from people she doesn't even know. I do not see the purpose of this! Its sad to think people would really go that far, it makes me believe they are really bored, or really lonely. What type of pleasure can you get out of misleading people to believe you have a fake daughter that is suffering from leukemia? I have no idea. She doesn't even get the sympathy messages, they are all for her "daughter". I have learned just from this article, that you cannot trust anyone or anything that is depicted on the Internet. I was pretty trusting to people online, but really anything can be hidden or made up.
ReplyDeleteThere will always be a level of mistrust or perceived deception with anything posted online, much like how there is always some suspicion of what someone says in real life about something as sensitive as Kaycee's leukemia case. To hear that it was all a sham and a work of fiction meant that the community surrounding her was also based on fabrications, and it is a risk those take online when choosing to stand behind, support or continue advocating something. The Internet is a dangerous but more and more necessary place to be engaged in, and people must take precautions to avoid being deceived. This article showed me that there is always more to a story, even a fake one, and the way that the community took sides after the admission shows what toying with people's trust can do.
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