Jack Werner: The true version will never have a chance on Facebook

It was a Wednesday when the farmer Emil Peterson was out and worked in the wet arable land at his farm in Resmo on Öland as it rang in his phone. His eight-year-old daughter Ella had been out and sold candy to earn a little money, as a practical lesson in entrepreneurship, but back home sorry. She had been robbed by a black guy.

He had come forward and wanted to have her femtiolapp. She had first refused him, felt discomfort and started to run away, and then he had followed after. When she stopped, told the guy that I get the money so stop I follow after you, " says Emil on his thoughtful öland.

Emil wanted to be sure it was the truth he was hearing. He is no expert on vittnespsykologi, " he says, but so much he knows of an unpleasant experience one can remember a lot but not everything. Some of the details of stops, the other will disappear. Had Ella had answers to all the questions would Emil tightening. But she gave a sincere and authentic impression, some of which were very clearly and other said.

" She was able to describe the clothes but not the shoes, and saying how black he was. The only thing that was a bit strange was that he had been dressed in shorts and green shirt. But if people nibbling various substances and is looking for money, they can be much weirder face than that, " he says.

that felt sorry for Ella when Emil told me about what had happened. In the village where they live, there are a hundred inhabitants. People know each other. Could someone have seen something? Soon, Emil's status had 500 divisions, and many more than just the village inhabitants found there. The tone changed in the comment field. He hesitates, but landing in that yes, it popped up a comment that was probably a racist. “Where is Sweden heading?”, wrote the other.

So far, it is a scene we recognize. It is often the stories that Emil and Ella's, which reaches far into the us, longer than the great news about the rulers and the world that defines our time. They are as we, in the same country as we are, and the feelings are easy to find even in the us. On social media, it is such, everyday dramas, we share with us and that will have the greatest spread. Perhaps shapes our worldview more than anything else. Therefore, they are worth spending the extra notice, for just such stories often turn out to be something completely different.

and it was time to lay down, when it rang. The number felt Emil not again. In the handset featured a who worked at the pottery in Resmo, who knew to tell me that they had had a visit from Ella during the day. With its femtiolapp in the hand she had been asking for a christmas gift for my mom, and bought and paid for and received the element. Then she went home. Emil's partner brought Ella, and asked her to account. First denied she. Then came there forward. It was where femtiolappen had ended, but she had not wanted to say – it was perhaps really the father wanted to have again, because it was he who bought the candy she sold.

Whence came the story of the dark-skinned man who had robbed her? Emil do not know, but promises to ask Ella. Later in the evening calling he back, after sitting in the car with her daughter and then brought up her history. It turns out that she saw a section of the TV4 programme ”112 - life and death”. There was committed a theft of a black man with shorts and the green shirt, and that she must put on the memory stick. For she – like all children – are not more stupid than that she understand what is a credible perpetrator in time. In the same way as the children who heard about the scary clowns in 2016, she presents to a player that the outside world can buy, a black man who robs children. That she as seen on tv. That is the story we tell ourselves.

for the money, and it had been able to stay there. The gods should know that accusing Facebooktexter disappeared without a trace in the past, when their foundation proved unstable. But Emil is not like many others who write angry statuses on Facebook. He feels a responsibility for what he writes there.

He deleted his text about the robbery, but I understood that the spread meant that the damage was already done. So he got in to his local radio station, P4 Kalmar, and told him what had happened, and they sent a feature (which I was with and commented on and thus became aware of the case). One thing led to the other, and suddenly wrote the Aftonbladet also about the history. In the media got the bigger spread. But on Facebook, where he also wrote an update where the real story was revealed?

– If the first status was shared 500 times, we are well with the new status hårfint up in 25 times, " says Emil.

It is elements, but Emil believe that it is someone tinkle in ceramics. When the mother opens the package and pretend to be surprised, is not the whole story forgotten in a way, while it might never disappear completely. It sinks down in the back of the head as a chekhov's gun, forgotten for the moment but ready to be picked up when the story requires. Ready for the next time a story requires a villain where none really exists.