Paper Short Abstract:

In November 2018, a series of fake events was initiated on social media by Estonian-speaking users. The “actions” were announced exactly like any other Facebook event, yet were not actually intended to be performed. The aim of the presentation is to discuss the event-organising game as a special vernacular practice from a folkloristic perspective.

Paper Abstract:

The Internet and its social media platforms provide a space for grassroots creative products and activities to gain visibility and receive wider attention. At the same time, the ready-made platform offers users the chance to engage with these opportunities in creative and playful ways. Pages can be created on FB to coordinate events and invite participants.

It was common in the 2010s for users to create events that were never meant to take place in reality. The most famous of such was the Storm Area 51 event, planned for September 2019.

A year earlier, in 2018, such fake events spread among Estonian-speaking user groups, mainly teenagers school children (at least 50 fake events have been documented). The basic material for observation was collected using internet ethnography. Particular interest was taken into what kind of content the young people posted on their fictional event pages. Specifically, what pop culture references, real-life situations (both unusual and routine) were incorporated, and how these elements were connected to the humorous nature of the events. However, among non-committal readers of the posts, the humorous content caused confusion and, in some instances, prompted intervention from adults.

The observation of the fictional journey to Blåkulla (a mythical place in Sweden) Cocq, C. & Skott, F. 2017), and the subsequent online joint fictionalization of a real incident in Crete (Tsakona 2018) provided a reference point for discussion.