As someone who has been around message boards and forums since the late 90’s one thing that has really surprised me is the degree to which people have started taking first person online stories seriously.

Reddit of course is full of them, as is Twitter and lots of other places. Meanwhile the incentives to successfully tell a just-so story that goes viral have never been higher. Youtube money, GoFundme, influencer opportunities, etc.

The post we are all responding to is super low effort, not even a photo, and not even a first person account. Her “friend” found an AirTag and threw it away.

Meanwhile there’s a GoFundme link right on the profile.

Just saying.