The Back to the Future Date Hoax - Twitter

People believe what they read in newspapers, but most young people, who have no knowledge in back of them to judge anything they see, seem to get all their news from the internet...and worse than that, from "tweets" that other people send.

The latest debacle?

In the trilogy of movies called Back to the Future, there is one in which Marty McFly goes to the future, October 21st, 2015.

So a site called Total Film doctors - forges - a picture making it seem as if it were July 5, 2010. And everybody believes it and there is great excitement.

Now it's revealed to be hoax.

The question is, will any of the young people who were fooled by this be outraged? Will they think they've been deliberately lied to? WIll they realize it's a bad thing? Or will they think, "Ah, how clever, what fact can I write down to see if other people are stupid enough to believe it?"
'Back to the Future' Date Hoax Goes Viral

by Mike Ryan · July 7, 2010
Fireworks came a day late for "Back to the Future" fans this week after a film site ignited an Internet trend by declaring Monday, July 5th as "Future Day." The site, Total Film, tweeted a doctored photo of the date shown on the dashboard of the Delorean that "Doc" (played by Christopher Lloyd) and "Marty McFly" (Michael J. Fox) used as their time machine. The photo (see it here) showed July 5th, 2010 as the "future date" they'd be traveling to. Followers of the site's feed retweeted that pic, and then their followers retweeted the image and so on. Soon it became it became one of the most-searched terms on the internet and a worldwide trending topic on Twitter.

Joe Jonas tweeted, "Today is the day that Marty McFly arrived in the future after hitting 88mph in a Delorean in 1985." Ivanka Trump added, "Greatest fun fact EVER: Today is the day that Marty McFly arrived in the future in "Back to the Future 2."

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The only problem? The whole thing was a hoax.

After the so-called "Future Day" news reached every corner of the Web, the site finally caved and admitted they'd pulled a fast one on the internet, issuing a mea culpa post: "We got it wrong. Apparently 5th July isn't mentioned in Back to the Future. So we went back and changed it..."

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As it turns out, the real future day is still a good five years off. It's on October 21st, 2015 that "Doc" warns Marty that there are a few problems with his kids, so they must go to the future to correct the situation. It's worth noting that most of the films predictions will likely not come to fruition: On the actual "future day," as depicted in the film, "Jaws 19" plays at the local movie theater (or, "holomax," as it's referred to in "Back to the Future") and the Chicago Cubs sweep Miami to win the World Series. Another popular myth is that "Back to the Future Part II" predicted the Florida Marlins winning a World Series long before there was a team in Miami. This is also false, because, well, it's not 2015 yet and the Cubs would have to win -- which, if statistics hold, will likely never happen.

If "Back to the Future" has taught us anything, it's that facts about the past (or future) need to be checked using an almanac, not Twitter. Also, we have five more years to create flying cars, the hoverboard, and 15 more "Jaws" films.