Oh! My!<\/p>\n
I’m sure you’ve seen the messages in your inbox. They’re usually from a friend or relative who’s just outraged\/worried\/offended at an e-mail they got from a friend or relative of theirs.<\/p>\n
Like these:<\/p>\n
Barack Obama’s campaign is being funded by Hugo Chavez!<\/p>\n
Your cell phone number is going to be given to telemarketers in just 4 days!<\/p>\n
Lemon Wedges are contaminating your drinks in restaurants!<\/p>\n
And the latest: The University of Kentucky has removed the Holocaust from their curriculum so they don’t offend Muslims!<\/p>\n
All these “stories” have two things in common: 1) They’re widely circulated over the Internet. 2). They’re false<\/p>\n
In addition to becoming a major source of information and communication, the Internet has also become a major vehicle for spreading rumors and innuendo, and (often) messages of hatred.<\/p>\n
We tend to believe the messages we get from friends and family – they must know, right? They wouldn’t send me something that was not true? So, we get these messages and send them along to our friends, maintaining the chain.<\/p>\n
The next time you get ANY message from ANYONE telling you about Barack, or Hillary, or a missing girl, or lemon wedges, do the following (please):<\/p>\n
Stop
\nThink
\nVisit www.snopes.com and check out the rumor.<\/p>\n
Snopes started out as an urban myth debunking site that has grown into a major source for information about all these messages. I have found that about 95% of the junk like this I get is just that – junk.<\/p>\n
Check out the rumor, and if it is false, or if it’s not quite true, do us all a favor: Reply All to the message, so you can hopefully stop the spread of this garbage, and include a link to Snopes.<\/p>\n
Here’s the message I usually send out:<\/p>\n
Friends: I’m sorry to tell you that the (message\/rumor) that we just got is false. You can check it out for yourself at www.snopes.com. Please – before you send out these kinds of messages, check them out to make sure they’re true. The Internet is such a great source for information, but it’s often abused by well-meaning (and not-so-well meaning) people all the time.<\/p>\n
-Bob<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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