Dutch student shows how to backpack in Southeast Asia while in Amsterdam

Yes, it's possible to turn your friends and family green by "Fakebooking"—and a Dutch student has just shown how.

 

Amsterdam-based Zilla van den Born fooled friends and family into thinking she spent five weeks backpacking all over Southeast Asia by posting vacation photos on her Facebook.

 

But in reality, she never left her home city as the exotic photos she posted were just from restaurants and establishments near her home, GapYear.com reported.

 

Only her boyfriend was aware of what was really going on.

 

But before you condemn the girl for her actions, she did it all for a good cause—a university project showing how Facebook activity does not necessarily reflect real life.

 

“I did this to show people that we filter and manipulate what we show on social media, and that we create an online world which reality can no longer meet," she was quoted in the report as telling local media.

 

She added her goal was to prove how easy it could be to distort reality.

 

"Everybody knows that pictures of models are manipulated. But we often overlook the fact that we manipulate reality also in our own lives,” she said.

 

During her "vacation," van den Born posted pictures of herself with exotic food in Asian restaurants but the restaurants were actually in Amsterdam.

 

Photos of her sitting beside a Buddhist monk in a temple were taken in a temple in Amsterdam, while photos of her snorkeling were at a pool at her apartment block.

 

To further bolster her online illusion, Zilla redecorated her own bedroom to resemble an Oriental hotel room—and had Skype conversations with her family at night. —Joel Locsin/NB, GMA News