It’s often said that some celebrities have more money than sense, and in many cases, that seems to be true.

Time and time again, in various iterations over the years, my social media feed has featured people posting apocalyptic messages about how every post on ‘insert applicable social media site’ is set to “become public”, with the site now able to use your pictures and other information as they see fit.

Usually, it’s just some old-timer family friend of the parents, but I’ve also seen Millennial-aged users post about this, and that really is a red flag.

You’re an idiot, and you’re also so f*cking lazy that you can’t be bothered to use Google in any shape or form before declaring your idiocy for all to see.

Well done.

Anyway, many celebrities have fallen victim to the latest round of collective stupidity, as Mashable points out:

Famous folks including Usher, Julia Roberts, Taraji P. Henson, Dave Bautista, Rob Lowe, Josh Brolin, Judd Apatow, Retta, Scooter Braun, Adriana Lima, US Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and high-profile beauty influencers all fell for an ancient social media copypasta — this time focused on Instagram and a vague threat of posts becoming “public” and able to be used in “court cases”.

You know, this one:

There it is.

I hear next week a Facebook representative is going to Mission: Impossible-style into your home, steal your dog, and eat that leftover pizza in the fridge.

If you don’t post a message in the next 24 hours, explicitly saying you do not want that to happen and citing Statute IR2DOF, we can’t help you.

I can cut the Boomers some slack, because the internet is a scary thing to learn about in your later years, but the younger folk really do need a stern talking to.

Let’s focus briefly on how the US Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry, was caught out on his personal Instagram account. That’s the man who oversees America’s nuclear program, in case you’re wondering.

Perry actually left his post up for a few days, defending his idiocy by pretending that he knew it was a hoax and he was mocking it, before deleting his Instagram post and trying to play it cool:

As that one user points out, you fell for it, Boomer.

Trevor Noah also got in on the pisstake:

Good form, Trevor. You should also check out his recent segment, ‘Donsplaining’, which deals with how another member of the US government is a total imbecile.

Ultimately, I get the panic over privacy, and recent documentaries like The Great Hack, which details the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, serve as a reminder that social media is already using every aspect of our online lives for self-enrichment and nefarious means.

When you share these hoaxes, though, you’re essentially saying “I’m too lazy to undertake even the most basic fact-checking mission on Google, which takes a grand total of about 30 seconds”.

Stop being so lazy.

[source:mashable]