So apparently this girl Emily Dirr started a fake character named J.S. on the internet when she was 11. Since then, the character not only grew, but his family grew (to ridiculous proportions) and evolved along with social media and networking sites. Here's the link to the article i just read.

http://gawker.com/5914621/the-long-fake-life-of-js-dirr-a-decade+long-internet-cancer-hoax-unravels

So what do you think? "Munchausen by Internet" or just a simple case of an 11 year old girl telling a lie, and getting too caught up in her own web to get out?

Well without even reading and just seeing your comments, my initial reaction is - if she's 11, it was probably just a joke or a lie and not intended to hurt people at first.
In the other cases where this has happened, hasn't it always been an older person (adult, anyway)? Going to read the article, though, 'cause I love reading about these kinds of things!

Well, it started when she was 11, she's 22 now. LOL. I just wrote a MASSIVE entry about it, and my take on it after reading the article. Honestly i think it was just a bored ass 11 year old girl, who told a lie that led to another lie, that led to another lie, and so on and so forth until she was hopelessly and utterly stuck fast in her own web of bullshit. I think more than likely, her fabricated story hit a point where it was too late to turn back, while knowing the further she went the worse it would get. Lying is very tricky, even over the internet.

That's the impression I got, too. I mean, at 11 I don't think she would have intended it to get into this big deal, but the more people that are reading and supporting her, the more she got into it, etc.

Seems like she was an 11 year old girl who wasn't getting the attention she needed/wanted in her real life. She probably never imagined getting much attention, but when she did, she just wanted more and more and more. Sad really.

So what do you think? "Munchausen by Internet" or just a simple case of an 11 year old girl telling a lie, and getting too caught up in her own web to get out?

I wonder whether there is really such a clear line between the two. In so many cases of Munchausen by internet, the person says afterwards that they never intended it to go so far, but got too caught up in it to be able to get out. I doubt any of them really have any idea what it will grow into. I mean, a person isn't born with 'Munchausen by internet' - it's surely something that develops, and its development will depend on how online people react. And of course, as a 'disorder', it obviously didn't exist before the internet existed!

I can't believe she kept it going for 10 years. I'm not sure it's munchausens, rather just a girl who was bored and enjoyed the attention.

Yep, ten years is a long time - most famous Munchausen by Internet cases seem to culminate in death within a few years.

I guess it also depends how one is defining Munchausen by Internet. My understanding is that the term has been coined to describe a certain behaviour - that is, the behaviour of faking an illness online, which looks like the behaviour of people who display Munchausen Syndrome in 'real life'. But, when online, it is defined purely by exernal behaviour, not by intent or mental health.

Maybe harder to pin down, because you don't see the real person, and also because the lines between faking, fantasy role play and creative fiction can become blurred online. I find quite a few people see online people as 'imaginary people,' so they fake online in a way that they wouldn't with real life people, because they don't see the relationships as real, and they see the internet as a sort of realm of imaginary fantasy.