Okay, first let me start off saying that I am close to feeling as betrayed, upset about the Kaycee blog as the rest of her blog supporters/followers. When I first started reading the article I was thinking of how great Kaycee was to have the courage to blog about her life as she was suffering from Leukemia and was happy to see all of the supporters. When I read that she died I was kind of sad. But when I read that "she never even existed" my initial thought was "are you serious?!" Even though I only got a brief excerpt of her life I felt betrayed as well.
I learned a lot of different things in this article but the signals were interesting to me. In regards to assessment and conventional signals, I had never really thought about how they give different types of authenticity to the viewers. For example assessment signals are usually types of evidence such as photos supporting their statements. Conventional signals on-the-other-hand are more like simple quotes or sayings; nothing is really proven. I was sickened to know that Debbie, (Kaycee's "mother") went as far as posting pictures of a teenager and even having a conversation with New York Times, which both would be considered conventional signals.
I am not sure if the article ever really stated if it was true or not that Debbie is/was mentally in-stable but all signs point to yes in my opinion. She lied, betrayed, so many people and I am not even clear as to what her motives really were for doing this. I agree with one of the bloggers comments saying that this should be a lesson to many people who are involved in online relationships that the person they are talking to may in fact be deceptive. This article will make me start being more cautious and inquisitive toward the validity of things I read/see online.
Hey Goldie. I really liked your post! LIke you I was also pretty disappointed to find out that Kaycee never existed. I read a lot of blogs and if I fount out any of them were made up fabrications I'd defintely be made. LIke you said, even though we're only getting brief explanations we still feel someone attached so when we find out its fake of course we're going to be disappointed and mad!
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty sick that her 'mother' went as far as posting pictures and doing interviews with New York Times...
Overall though I think this woman definitely has more problems than we could even begin to describe...