If you’ve been on the Internet at all for the past couple of days, you’ve probably seen at least one person make the assertion that at some point in Back to the Future, Doc Brown sets the clock in the DeLorean to a date 25 years in the future. That date is supposedly today. Or possibly yesterday.
This rumor is a nice thought, so everyone has been retweeting it like crazy. Pity it’s unlikely to be true, since the BTTF movies were set in 1985, 1955, 2015 and 1855. None of those are 25 years in the future from the film’s original release date. The closest is 2015. But that’s clearly 5 years away.
The interesting thing about this is how quickly it spread across the Internet without a shred of proof to back it up. No-one, at the time of writing, has posted a still from the film. Not even a bad Photoshop job. But somehow, everyone’s just accepted this blindly.
I know that ultimately it doesn’t really matter in this case, but isn’t it a little scary that thousands, possibly millions of people across the world blindly stated this as fact without bothering to question it or research it?
Twitter is like a global game of Chinese Whispers sometimes. All it takes is one influential tweeter to post something contentious and the world will jump on it. Sometimes this is a good thing – the huge display of generosity from the public upon the death of Frank Sidebottom’s creator Chris Sievey, for example, raising well over £20,000 for his funeral costs.
And sometimes this is a bad thing. How many times has Twitter been swept by false announcements of someone’s death? It’s a common joke now that any time someone’s name comes up in the Trending Topics that they might have died.
What happens if something seriously untrue spreads this way though? Serious accusations about someone in high office? Reports of a disaster which never happened? Earth-shattering news which is just an outright lie?
It’s an alarmist way of looking at things, of course. But the Internet has proved time and time again that it can make the most stupid shit into a star, or the most outlandish fact seem like reality.
So think before you RT, kids! Winners don’t use Wikipedia!
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I clearly remember Doc saying he was going 30 years in the future from 1985. Hence the 2015. Way to go Internet! haha!
Well Fuck. I’m guilty. I have been suspicious of the claim and even started a half-assed attempt to falsify it. I failed since the meme was too vague (which movie? which scene?) and simply forwarded the tweet. I will do better next time, I promise!
I heard Jeff Goldblum died.