2013 was the year we were tricked, catfished, and hoaxed. Of course it was! We were so empowered by our ability to make a difference via virtual means that we forgot how vulnerable that made us to trickery. When we saw something outrageous, we were outraged, millions of us all at once; when someone was wronged, we jumped at the chance to come to his or her rescue. We didn't bother to verify our stories; we just believed them. It's poetically ominous that the year began with the revelation that a highly publicized sad story had been fictional: Manti Te'o's deceased girlfriend had been fictional. This was, of course, a double-catfish. Te'o was duped along with the rest of us, he maintains, into believing his girlfriend had died (and that she had existed at all). He sustained the full impact of a blow to his dignity without anyone else being harmed, but in retrospect it seems like a warning: Don't put your trust in people you can't see. We ignored it.
- Tess Lynch, "The Year in Internet: The Rise of the Hoax Economy"
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