Ever wonder what it would be like to become an overnight internet sensation? Of course, you have. Let's face it, when we see people like Jacob Sartorious (UGH) and Lele Pons (double UGH) make it big on sites like Twitter and Vine, we begin to think "If they can do this and they're this insufferable, I would literally be a sight for social media's sore eyes." Well, so did Pablo Reyes when he concocted the craziest scheme to troll the entire internet this past week.
Sometime Tuesday evening, Reyes' Facebook post, dating back to December 2015, went viral with some pretty bold predictions. They were all pretty off the wall, including the death of Prince, the US's worst mass shooting, and Hilary Clinton becoming President of the United States!
And, naturally, people went CRAZY.
At this point, Pablo had me hooked. And because more than a few of the events had already happened, there was now solidarity to his post. For someone to make these kinds of claims 6 months ago and have them actually pan out? Grade-A psychic. And for me to admit I believed him is a big deal, because I'm a huge skeptic. It's hard for me to watch Long Island Medium and believe her – and she's convincing! So I did my digging to find out if Pablo was for real, and things took a turn for the worst for his case.
While researching Facebook's fine print, I discovered a feature that can be used to 1. schedule a post to be published at a later date then you submit it, and 2. change the date today, months, and even years before it's original posting date.The latter of the two is called "backdating," and this is what Pablo used in his favor to achieve his temporary fame.
You can choose to employ this feature when you're typing out your status on your profile (because it doesn't work when you're sending a post from the top of your timeline). After typing what you plan to publish, select the little clock next to the location setting and you're free to date and time your post to whenever you deem fit.
So next time you're fantasizing about becoming internet famous, I guess you could borrow one of Pablo's moves and backdate a Facebook post, having your friends share it to no end. Just make sure this storm has had enough time to blow over first, or you'll just look like a copy cat.
