By Amalia Theocharidou,
Have you ever been “trolled” to no end? To believe a simple information that you see on the Internet, that ends up to be a completely made-up lie? Well, that was the case for multiple people this summer, when the social media were taken over by the trend of “Psimythos” island. Started by a simple tweet of the user BeatBukowski, who’d commented that it’d be nice to make up a name for a fake island, for example Psimythos, and spread the word about it, saying everyone visited this summer. “You didn’t get to go this year? You totally missed“.
The smartwitted users of X were quick to catch on, establishing the story as a fact and starting to build around it. Soon enough, Psimythos got its own villages, festivals, beaches… and even traditions, with the users having a great time by making up names and more, in order to troll the unsuspecting others. Irregular names, images of other islands which were supposedly depicting various local sights and even maps started to appear on the Internet, with the people who were wondering where Psimythos even came from, rising day by day. To add to it all, even an “official” touristic website was put on, as well as fake municipality signs, causing more confusion.
The whole trend gained the attention of many known Greek personas and platforms, just like NETFLIX, which paralled the imaginary island to the LOST island. The funny tweets continued with politicians “calling” their voters to gather at their events at the “traditional cafe of Psimythos” and the hellenic police claiming that Psimythos was the only law abiding place, where no arresting had taken place. Even though the mood to joke and clean the air of a very hectic summer was clear, the lighthearted tweets of the politicians and the authorities outraged multiple users, who called them out on spending time writing funny posts instead of doing their actual jobs.
The users, caught on the opportunity given by the fame the island got, decided to use it in order to highlight the problems of the modern Greek society. With an underdevelopped school and no remaining medical staff, it’s a wonder how Psimythos still made it throughout the summer season. A specific tweet of a user even attracted the attention of the Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis. The user talked about how the last remaining doctor of Psimythos had quit due to the low wage of 800 euros they received, leaving an island of 600 locals and thousands of visitors with no medical aid. The spreading of misinformation continued, with clueless people starting to report the Ministry of Health for mishandling the issue as well as wanting to take legal actions towards it. Mister Georgiadis, clearly annoyed at the turn things took, posted saying that the whole story of the doctor who left wasn’t the only fake one, since Psimythos, which is supposedly ruined due to the lack of sanitary aid, is a fake island.
As a harmless trend took a massive turn and with its founder posting an official apology, I will leave you with a tweet I stumbled upon the other day, which has really gotten to me. The fact that in a country, the biggest source of joy is spending time posting and misinforming people about a fake island, says a lot about the country, itself.
Reference
- Ψίμυθος: Το ονειρικό νησί που δεν υπάρχει… Ελεύθερος Τύπος. Available here
