Gordon Lightfoot is just the latest celebrity to fall victim to a Twitterversed “death prank.” Around 2pm, various sources, even some noted Toronto-based publications, tweeted that the famed Canadian folk singer had indeed succumbed at the age of 72. Within an hour, it was confirmed as a prank when a Globe and Mail columnist made a call to Lightfoot’s publicist to verify his being "very much alive."
Over the past year, false tweets claiming the deaths of Jeff Goldblum, Rick Astley, Britney Spears, and Johnny Depp have all caught fire. (Depp's prank was fueled by a hoax report falling into the wrong, hungry hands.)The pranks often lasting long enough to become trending topic, but aren’t defused quickly enough for public comfort.
Is this malevolent public voice a result of being drunk on power? To play God and shape public consciousness from an anonymous platform (and thus, without consequence)? Web-based law enforcement should be the next step.
Why have we become so obsessed with celebrity death? Ever since Michael Jackson died, I have noticed this public sadism. Are parts of us happy or wishing for this death as a validation of their mere mortality, their fall from such a god-like position in the public eye? The fall of the golden boy, the schadenfreude? Of course. How pathetic that we can't even see our own decline.
