by Debayan Paul
As the world battles a global Pandemic of a never-before-seen strain of Coronavirus, the internet has been a major source of information for the quarantined world, and apparently not all the information that is surfacing are true.
Streams of stories from major media outlets continue to inform the public about how army vans are carrying the increasing number of dead bodies in Italy that had no place to be cremated, new infection cases are on the rise in Europe and the US, there are medical supply shortages, and so on. None of the news brings a moment of peace.
But, some happy posts by netizens took rounds on the internet in the last weeks and it looks like people found some respite from the panic of infection that has literally made the conquering human race cover their faces with masks.
Sometimes it is schools of fish and swans returning to deserted Venetian canals, along with dolphins. Other times it would be elephants trespassing cornfields and getting drunk off corn wine and passing out there as humans are locked indoors; feel-good stories like these appealed to thousands amidst these trying times.
According to recent National Geographic coverage, these happy stories in countries hit hard by Covid-19 were retweeted hundreds of thousands of times and went viral on Instagram and TikTok. And people thought, if there’s anything worthwhile in this pandemic, it is the animals rebounding while humans are forced indoors.
And it turns out, those stories weren’t true.
Swans are regular visitors in the canals of Burano, a little Island in the greater Venice metropolitan area. No one knows where the drunken elephant images came from. And the dolphins? They were filmed hundreds of miles away, at a port in Sardinia, in the Mediterranean Sea.
A Chinese media report confirmed that elephants did come in a village at Yunnan province, but their presence isn’t out of the norm. The elephants aren’t the ones pictured in the viral posts, and they didn’t get drunk and pass out in a tea plantation.
Stories of animals enjoying themselves with comments like ‘nature just hit the reset button on us,’ while humans are locked indoors, certainly appeal to the masses emotionally.
Research shows people are compelled to share stories that are more emotionally affecting. And this current social phenomenon reflects how at trying times, too-good-to-be-true stories can spread rapidly. Such a social phenomenon is so powerful, a 2016 study analogized it with the models of a spread of a contagious epidemic.
In the same way, the swan tweet by New Delhi, India-based Kaveri Ganapathy Ahuja hit a million likes and it turns out she just compiled some images she saw on social media and decided to post them in a tweet.
She wrote on her controversial tweet- “Here’s an
unexpected side effect of the pandemic – the waters flowing through the canals
of Venice is clear for the first time in forever. The fish are visible, the
swans returned.”
The Twitter user didn’t see the viral fame coming and even after controversy, she has no intention of deleting it, saying “It’s a personal record for me, and I would not like to delete it.”
The Urge to Post the Untruth
What propels such behaviors at a time of crisis? Different experts and studies have said that posting on social media is related to feeling good or a temporary boost in self-esteem.
A postdoctoral Standford University fellow and a social psychologist, Erin Vogel says “in times when we’re all really lonely, it’s tempting to hold onto that feeling, especially if we’re posting something that gives people a lot of hope.”
She clarified that the very idea that nature is reviving and animals are finding safe haven on earth as humans are quarantined “could help give us a sense of meaning and purpose—that we went through this for a reason.” She encourages people to share positive things that don’t have to be dramatic. They just need to be true.
People really believe in the power of nature to recover, Susan Clayton, a professor of psychology and environmental studies at the University of Wooster says, “People hope that, no matter what we’ve done, nature is powerful enough to rise above it.”
About the Author
Debayan writes for anything that is for the benefit of Humanity. Currently a Web Editor for Paperboat Holidays and a freelance digital writer, Debayan remains busy finding the meaning of life, when not working.
