No. 7 — Mega Digital Horn Alert
- Miriam Tocino
- Aug 4
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 4
Not everything on a screen is true. Asking questions, and doubting sometimes, is a brave thing to do.
Sometimes a story pops up on a screen that seems too strange, too sparkly, or too exciting to be real.
And sometimes… it isn’t.
In the digital world, not everything is what it seems.
Images can be edited. Facts can be twisted. And even friendly-looking messages can carry sneaky tricks.
This story is about that.
About pausing before you believe, checking before you share, and trusting your own curiosity when something feels off.
A story with mysterious horns, suspicious signals, and a wild rumor that takes over every screen — until someone finally asks: “Wait… is this actually true?”
Because in a world full of noise, being the one who questions can be the bravest thing of all.
Digital Horn Alert
Zerus looked at himself in the mirror for the fourth time that morning. He was convinced his antennas were growing. Like deer antlers!
“Do they look bigger than yesterday?” he asked.
Ona was typing away on her typewriter, which made more noise than an old modem logging onto the network.
“Bigger how?” she replied, barely looking up.
Their newsroom smelled like digital ink.
Surrounded by mountains of news clippings, the walls were decorated with portraits of history’s most famous liars: Pinocchio, the Big Bad Wolf dressed as Grandma, and Pedro — the shepherd boy who cried “Wolf!” a few too many times.
For years, Zerus and Ona had run a newspaper called “We Went to the Moon Too.” That was the only hoax in history they had never managed to debunk.
It was the most honest newspaper in the Digital Universe. Even the Official Fake News Detector Agency had given them a shiny plaque — complete with a hologram.
Just then, their reporter parrot Repeteitor (Repe, to friends) swooped in through the air vent.
“Extra, extra! They say if you use a phone before you’re nine, you grow antlers like a deer!”
Zerus touched his antennas and turned binary white.
“Breathe,” said Ona, lifting her fingers from the keyboard. “Let’s use the Three-Filter Technique.”
Repe dropped the news scroll inside a glass bottle, like a castaway’s message.
Filter One: SOURCE
“Let’s see where this came from…” She unrolled it and read aloud: “scarybutclickable-news.net”
“Isn’t that the site that claimed robots cry if you don’t say goodnight to them?” asked Zerus.
“Exactly,” said Ona. “Not a serious source…”
Filter Two: EMOTION
“Zerus, how does this story make you feel?”
“Kind of scared,” he said quietly. “And also… like I’d laugh if it happened to someone else.”
“That’s normal. Fake news loves to mess with our feelings. It’s their favorite trick.”
Filter Three: CONTRAST
They both started scrolling through dozens of web pages.
“Aha!” they said in unison, pointing at the screen. “It’s the same image — pixelated antlers and all!”
“But from a sci-fi comic. And it’s three years old…” added Ona.
“Someone shared it like it was a real study,” concluded Zerus, relieved. “Thank goodness we have the Three Filters Technique…”
Zerus touched his antennas one last time and turned to Repe and Ona with a spark in his eye.
“Well, all these hoaxes can go take a hike — to the digital woods!”
Big Questions for Small Thinkers
Have you ever heard a story that seemed strange or unbelievable? How did you know if it was true?
What could we do if someone tells us something that sounds suspicious?
Why do you think people sometimes share false things without meaning to?
