Hoaxes

This morning, I was one of two respondents to a new thread. The other contributor told the author that his hoax radar had been activated. I always have a little sizzle of hoax when a contributor is new. I have to admit that this post reminded me of one presenting a similar problem. The big difference was in the writing style. The earlier post was broadly agrammatical and colloquial while this was was well written.

However, I am not writing about these specific threads but about hoaxes in general.

What motivates the telling of lies on the internet?

Is the person simply writing and writing through a forum rather than a diary? i ask this first because, to a large extent, that is what I do. I present no falsehoods but I do write mainly to "keep in fighting trim." I have never been able to write freely when journaling.

Is the person like a teenager making prank calls? There is a difference between writing to keep in fighting trim and pranking. A prank caller takes delight in fooling people . . . a very young prank caller may like being accepted as an adult . . . so, an online hoax artist may delight in fooling or may be a young person eager for what s/he perceives as adulthood.

Is the person just a chronic liar? Again, that is different from a prankster. We have all known at least one chronic liar in our lives. Might some people use a forum as an escape valve, that is, do they recognize they have a need to lie and do they lie under the cover of a fake name on the internet as a means of keeping their day-to-day lives on the straight and narrow?

What do you think?