Jeremy Renner Is Not Dead Despite What Social Media Says And, Man, Society Is Screwed

The hashtag #RIPJeremyRenner was trending with tens of thousands of tweets on Friday afternoon on Twitter. The only problem? Jeremy Renner is very much in fact alive, as social media continues to descend into a cesspool of misinformation and chaos.

It all started when a Twitter user doctored a Guardian newspaper headline to make it look like Renner died in an elevator accident.

SOCIAL MEDIA RAN WITH A DOCTORED IMAGE AND HEADLINE

A couple things to deal with here.

First off, you would think that humans would be smart enough not to take advice from someone with the Twitter name "@WeedHitter," but alas they are not. There are literally thousands of messages, retweets, condolences and more thinking that Jeremy Renner is dead!

Second, if you don't read his actual message - which clearly a ton of people didn't, and only looked at the actual image and fake Guardian headline - it DOES look real. Everything from the author's name and contact on the side, to a correct image caption, coloring, and more.

The fact that it also dealt with Renner of all people makes the story seem that much more possible because he nearly did die just a few months ago in a horrible snowplow accident. You just know that group chats were like, "OMG Jeremy Renner died!" thinking that it had something to do with his recovery taking a turn for the worst.

HOW DO WE FACT-CHECK WHEN AI TAKES OVER?

Although it's great to hear that The Avengers and The Hurt Locker star is alive and still recovering from his previous accident, this is just another example of just how screwed we are as misinformation and disinformation continues to take over the world. The growth of social media has only fast-tracked the ability to either directly or indirectly spew pure BS. Many times it's funny, so over-the-top that it could never be true. However other times, it can be much more serious.

When you consider the fact that Artificial Intelligence, doctored photos, fake videos, voice changing technology and more is growing at a rampant and dangerous pace, you suddenly realize that we are on the verge of not knowing what is in fact true. The growing complaints about ChatGPT are a perfect example of this.

It's a frightening precedent because society is so dumb to begin with (just look at what people willfully handed over throughout the past 3 years) that you just know this is eventually going to come back to have serious consequences.

Fortunately, Jeremy Renner will be alive to see it.