The Jaden Smith suicide rumor seems to be the undead zombie of the internet this summer. Despite repeated debunkings, the story that Jaden Smith is dead keeps popping back up. In a nutshell, while rumors of Jaden Smith’s death have been greatly exaggerated, they just won’t die.
Over a month ago, the horrifying news that Jaden Smith, the son of Hollywood superstars Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, had committed suicide broke on social media. The story primarily started making the rounds on Facebook, and it was a self-perpetuating nightmare of a tale that convinced thousands (if not tens of thousands) of people that Jaden Smith was dead.
Once Facebook users clicked the links that announced the suicide of Jaden Smith, the story would show up on their friend’s Facebook feeds, passing along the completely unfounded rumor and generally freaking people out.
What made the rumors of Jaden Smith’s suicide even more disturbing was that they started floating around just before his 18th birthday on July 8. That means whoever started the rumors was targeting a minor and sharing the completely untrue story that he had taken his own life. A lot of Jaden Smith’s fans bought the story at first, and social media was flooded with disbelief and sorrow — until folks figured out that they’d been duped.
Then, Jaden Smith’s fans were just flat-out angry.
The rumors persisted strongly for weeks, and while nobody was quite sure where they’d come from, there were also rumors that the Jaden Smith death rumors were part of a wider self-promotion conspiracy set into motion by Jaden Smith himself. Because the suicide hoax gained a lot of popularity and guaranteed a lot of popularity for Jaden just as his dad’s new flick Suicide Squad and his own Netflix series The Get Down were set to premiere, many began to suspect that Jaden Smith might have set the ball rolling himself.
For a while now, it appeared that the suicide rumors swirling around Jaden Smith were over and done with. However, as Health Aim reports, the Facebook links are starting to circulate again. The site is also reporting that enough people have, once again, gotten caught up in the story of Jaden Smith’s death.
Whhyyyyyyy do people keep posting on Facebook that Jaden Smith is dead?????? Bruuuuh
— ?B (@tat2edgal) September 4, 2016
“Earlier last month, several platforms have reported that Will Smith’s son has committed suicide. The 18-year-old has reportedly taken his life *again* as new reports surface on Facebook. However, once the news links are clicked the report doesn’t say anything about his death. Only proving that it’s just another hoax, again.”
In fact, Willow Smith and other members of Jaden Smith’s family have started receiving online condolences from people who have heard the news of Jaden Smith’s untimely and tragic death.
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), this is just another Jaden Smith death hoax. The young Mr. Smith is still alive and well. He’s been seen out and about with his girlfriend, the notorious Sarah Snyder , and his little sister, Willow. He’s been giving interviews, showing up in magazines, and even adding his vocal talent to music videos.
Just last week, Jaden Smith appeared in a remake video of the Black Eyed Peas’ iconic song “Where Is the Love?” The new video dropped just a few days ago. Ironically, right about the time, the latest rumors of Jaden Smith’s death started popping up again on Facebook.
Does the timing of the latest Jaden Smith death hoax/suicide rumors indicate that there might be some truth to the theory that Jaden is starting these rumors himself to draw attention to his name, brand, and projects?
If he is, it’s a pretty effective (and almost free) advertising ploy.
In real life, Jaden Smith seems to be pretty happy and not at all suicidal. In fact, he recently commented on happiness in an interview.
“It’s good to be happy and tell us how cool your life is and how awesome you are on social media. That’s great because it inspires other people to be happy, too. But a lot of times, people are trying to be happy in the wrong ways—with money or with different things that are not true happiness. It’s leading people down a rabbit hole that actually doesn’t exist.”
Bottom line, though, is that Jaden is alive and well; he didn’t kill himself and he hasn’t died. It just appears that Jaden Smith has become the victim of the internet’s longest-running death hoax.
[Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images]