Posted by
Charly Hornbrook in Florida on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:32:50 AM
If you have an email InBox, you get lots of SPAM and some of it falls under
the headings of Hoaxes, Urban Legends, Bogus Virus Warnings, etc. If you want to be
part of the solution, not part of the problem - DON"T PASS IT ON! When you get
one of those emails that talks about GOD being left off a new coin or a Pepsi
can, or a virus that will eat your computer, check it out. There is a plethora of websites that specialized in
debunking (or confirming) these types of claims. It takes only a few keystrokes
to verify if the information is correct or just another hacker's attempt to
scare those who believe almost everything. (just put the word HOAX in your
search box). The person who starts these rumors knows that most email users are
basically too lazy to go the next step and check out if it is true...they
prefer just to pass these falsehoods on to their list of friends -without
verification. It seems harmless enough, slandering a person or a company all
while remaining anonymous. If this same person were to take out a newspaper ad
and make the same false accusation, they would soon find themselves in court.
So, what to do if you want to be a responsible Internet user? 1. Read
it 2. Check it out 3. Delete it if it is false and notify the sender of your
findings. If you don't want to be a responsible person, then just delete it
without comment or pass it on with some sort of comment like: "I didn't check
this out, but..."
The Email Internet is exponential. If your friend sends you a hoax and
also sends it to 9 others, that's 10 people who read it. Now, if each of those
ten forward it on to their ten buddies, then 100 people are now reading it and
if they pass it on to 10 of their friends we have 1000 people getting
bad information. Should each of those 1000 pass it on to 10 on their contact
list the readership rises to 10,000. Add ten more from these folks and we hit
100,000 and ten more we are at 1 million readers, 10 more and we are up to 10
million, etc...and on and on...all getting false statements, and that could
seriously affect a business like Pepsi for example, or a politician like Sarah
Palin, who is completely innocent of the charges. The speed of the Internet is
frightening isn't it? It only takes an email about one second to get to it's
destination anywhere in the world. So a lie gets around just as fast as the
truth.
Next time you get one of the "would-you-believe...." emails, PLEASE take
the time to check it out with Snopes, TruthorFiction, UrbanLegends, Hoax-Slayer,
HoaxBusters or one of the other dozen resource web sites. If it is false, tell
the sender or better yet, hit the Reply All button on your email program and let
everyone who got it know it is a hoax. If we all do this every time, we can
make a difference in the Email Inbox Clutter.
It is another reason the Conservative point of view is so superior to those
spouting liberalism. Liberals just don't care to be responsible...very selfish
folks most of the time.