The other day, I got one of those emails that end with the "share this with everybody you know" line. As I read this junk sent by a "friend," I could only wonder if he read it before sending it on to me. If he did read red it, I had to wonder if he believed it, or maybe, it was a test to see if I would believe it!
Clearly, this is a downside of the Internet: people can write just about anything they want and send it around the world in nothing flat. There have probably been a score of dissertations done on this issue already that might provide some insight, but I am still left with my question: why do "friends" send you junk that you hope that they can't possibly believe. After all, don't we want to believe that our friends have good sense?
Well, in my recent experience, I dutifully got the cite from Snopes and sent it back to my "friend" with a comment suggesting that he might want to bookmark that cite so he could check out stuff before forwarding it. The message back was even more telling: just because Snopes says it's a hoax doesn't prove that it is one.
With the modern twist to how we on the sidelines can "participate" in politics in a significant way, it's easy to help attack someone with one of these type messages. So natch - Barack Obama really does want to change our National Anthem to the "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" song. Maybe he would also designate Coca-Cola our national beverage while he's at it!
Silly me, it has to be true, it was on the Internet!
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