6.3. Inauthenticity#

Before we go into more nuanced aspects of authenticity, let’s take a moment and look at the opposite of authenticity, and look at inauthentic behaviors.

Inauthentic behavior is when the reality doesn’t match what is being presented. There are many ways inauthnticity shows up on social media, such as:

  • Catfishing: Create a fake profile that doesn’t match the actual user, usually in an attempt to trick or scam someone

  • Sockpuppet (related to a burner account): Creating a fake profile in order to argue a position (sometimes intentionally argued poorly to make the position look bad)

  • Astroturfing: An artificially created crowd to make something look like it has popular support

  • Parody accounts: An account that is intentionally mimicking a person or position, but intended to be understood as fake.

  • Schrodinger’s asshole: the guy who says awful shit, and decides if he was “only kidding” depending on your reaction.

  • Various types of trolling, which we will cover in the next chapter