Twisted Insight to Weblog Story

After reading the NY Times story entitled, "A Beautiful Life, an Early Death, a Fraud Exposed" I feel that I have come into a twisted world where no one knows the difference between real and fiction. Countless individuals read about a girl named Kaycee that was battling leukemia and fighting to stay alive. Based on what her readers thought, she was a friendly, strong, independent girl that just wanted to share her story with the world and express her experiences with battling leukemia. Little did they know that this was a complete hoax. A mother invented Kaycee as a fictional character and claimed to not have any intentions to hurt anyone in the process, it was pure entertainment.

This story has made me question just what is true, and what is not. The followers of Kaycee's weblog felt for her, sent her care packages, and offered to even pay her a visit. How can people feel so connected with someone through the internet that they feel the need to send them a care package? It is difficult to wrap my head around, but after reading an article from Judith Donath it began to make sense.

The woman who made Kaycee up may have just wanted companionship and so she created a character that she knew people would fall in love with and would want to follow. In a sense I believe that this woman may have been searching for her own identity and by creating Kaycee so that she felt that she was part of a community. As Judith said if readers know about a writer's motivation it will greatly affect how they view what is being said. Although in this case, the readers did not know of the woman's motivation of pure entertainment, and in return she caused heartache to readers around the world.

It is interesting that such a connection can be made between strangers and that social media is the culprit. Because we have the ability to connect with complete strangers, we also have the ability to affect their lives on an intimate level. The idea of what is true and what is not should definately be questioned when communicating with people miles away that are hiding behind screen names.