Heather Owings
SLM 521
November 12, 2003
Elective #5

Send This to Everyone You Know :)

In the last 2 weeks I have received warnings: not to open the door if I hear a crying baby; to be cautious at gas stations, carefully examining both the pump handle and my backseat; and upon receiving phone calls from strange telephone representatives, I should never ever push nine, zero, and pound. These are just several of the hoaxes being sent via email around the Internet.

I hate the way that hoaxes coerce readers to believe them by using the element of fear. In fact, I still use Carmex despite the addiction warnings and I drink Coke compulsively despite its renowned toilet bowl cleaning abilities. Boy was I happy when I found out those were myths!

But seriously, whether it is a computer virus, a lost child, or health hazard, the subject of a hoax is always one that inspires fear in the reader and promotes passing the fear along to everyone you know (or at least everyone in your email address book). The uneducated reader might actually react because a good hoax sounds technical and is usually sent by a seemingly creditable source. Oh no! These email warnings state that I could lose my hard drive (debunk these computer myths here), this mother could lose her child (truly missing children are listed here) or my health may be in jeopardy! (check truthfulness here) It’s a bit sick that these hoaxes feed off the believer’s adrenaline rush of fear. Similarly, chain letters have a hook, a threat, and a request. Of those three elements, I think the one that pulls readers in is the threat. Terrible things may happen to you, your family, or your karma if you do not send this chain letter to your 50 closest friends. It’s ridiculous and cruel. This is why we need to promote authenticating sources, because these horrible hoaxes and myths will abound as long as they elicit a reaction. The more people who respond by simply deleting the email, the less power these urban legends have. And students especially should learn to read critically and carefully.

The scariest aspect of hoaxes, chain letters, and urban myths is that they reproduce so fast. Not only can they cause crashes and server problems but also they can give spammers hundreds of valid email - all in one chain letter. If George sends a chain letter to ten friends, even assuming you (as one of those friends) do not pass it on, your email address is still on the other nine that he sent out. And if George’s friend Frank forwards the email onto ten friends, your email address is now on all those forwards as well (unless Frank thoughtfully cuts and pastes it without the email addresses instead of rashly forwarding it in his fear). Is that not truly scary? In fact the Hoaxbuster's site mentioned a rumor that spammers now deliberately start hoaxes and chain letters to gather email addresses, but that could also be a hoax ;)

Not all urban legends are bad though, some are actually entertaining. My two literary favorites include: The War of the Worlds radio program mass panic (I often wonder if the newspaper articles about the panic the real hoax?) and Kurt Vonnegut’s bogus MIT graduation speech, the famous “Wear sunscreen” one. Maybe what separates a good urban legend from a bad email hoax is historical perspective.