Since my existence, Jackie Chan has died about seven times. The first time I heard about his death I was around the age of twelve. At this time, it was late 2011. The only popular social media sites were Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram ? who was new to the business. The news came out that Jackie Chan died in an accident of sorts and it was blasted all over the internet. The Facebook page, ?Jackie Chan 8/17/2011? went viral.
Jackie Chan is used to it
I?ll be the first to say ?YES! I believed it!?. It sadly wasn?t anything surprising. Jackie Chan at the time was a huge, action movie star who was known for doing all of his own stunts. The guy has broken almost every bone in his body, I?m sure I can?t afford his hospital bill. It didn?t help that he didn?t release any new films around that time. With that premise, it opened the idea of him possibly dying due to a stunt he did on set of a yet to be released film. It made sense at the time. As my mind came to the conclusion that the announcement was indeed real, my fingers came to the conclusion to upload ?RIP Jackie Chan? to my Facebook page. The night after the viral news went out, trustworthy news channels squashed the hoax for what it was, ?FAKE NEWS?. Though many people were happy to hear that he was alive, many were left in the dark. Years after people still continued to believe that Jackie Chan was indeed dead.
The term ?fake news? has become a sort of epidemic in the world we live in today. We live in a society where bots are programmed to spew lies, social media grants people access to quicker information, and regular civilians act as reporters. It?s dangerous. It is becoming easier to get misguided information. If people lack the skill or will to do their own research on what they come across they might as well know nothing at all. With new technology advances such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), ?fake news? can be in any form. AI allows people to create videos where someone is saying something they didn?t say. If a civilian was to make an AI video of the president making threats to another country, that could put a lot of people at risk of danger. It is very possible that another country can choose to attack due to that said video.
The fact that the term ?fake news? has become a part of our vocabulary as a society is a great thing. More people are aware that everything they see on the internet isn?t factual. As a society, it is important that we report those who spread fake news to manipulate people and think before we post. I think we owe it to Jackie Chan. He?s been killed enough.
