Death by misinformation

I'm writing this not from the afterlife, but from the lobby of Brittany Hotel in Villar City, with a cup of coffee and a couple of hardboiled eggs on my table, and a smile on my face.

- OF TREES AND FOREST FORMER SENATE PRESIDENT MANNY VILLAR

I find it amusing that I have had to prove to the world of social media that I am still alive. I had to post a proof of life photo last week in response to viral rumors on the internet that I was sick and have died in Singapore.

Even more amusing is the fact that this is not the first time social media has "killed" me. There was also a rumor about my demise February of this year. And I remember about four or five years ago news about my death in Brazil and Singapore also circulated on social media. So aside from "dying" multiple times I have also experienced multiple digital resurrections.

Death hoaxes are not new, of course. It has happened in the past even before the advent of the internet and social media. I remember the famous death hoax involving Paul McCartney of The Beatles. I was probably in my late teens when a conspiracy theory circulated that McCartney died in a car wash and that The Beatles decided to hide the news by replacing him with the person who won a Paul McCartney lookalike contest.

And then there was the case of American humorist and author Mark Twain who had to proclaim in The New York Journal that, "The report of my death was an exaggeration."