LS 521- Spring ‘02
4/9/02
Introduction:
Anyone who regularly uses the
Internet and/or e-mail should peruse the resources listed below to educate
themselves on the dangers and signs of hoaxes, viruses, and urban legends. They can be very damaging and information is
the best tool with which to combat them!
Resources:
Hoaxbusters
(http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/)
Center for Disease Control
(http://www.cdc.gov/hoax_rumors.htm)
About Urban Legends and Folklore (http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/urbanlegends/)
Response:
After reading about the
influx of garbage on the Internet, including forwards, hoaxes, and viruses;
here was the response I posted on our class Discussion Board on April 9. 2002: (If
you have access to Blackboard,
feel free to see the entire discussion!)
I too read over those
resources as an elective. What struck
me was the fact that the (literally) hundreds of forwards and e-mails that I
used to get everyday were part of this larger infection in the Internet. What was interesting to me was when I was on
the Hoaxbusters (http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org) site it talked about the cost of
these e-mails to employers, which was staggering when you think about it...
Then I thought about the cost to US in terms of the time it takes to not only
read these e-mails, but even just deleting the ones you know are not important.
That really started to make me angry.
Another thing is that I
actually used to feel badly when I erased the message sent about the girl with cancer
or the fact that Bill Gates wasn't going to donate money if I didn't forward
something because deep down, I always wondered if they COULD be true.. Yikes!
Now I realize that the telltale signs of hoaxes and myths are the obvious ones
that most of us use all the time anyways! There is so much garbage out there
that those hints are very valuable.
I would encourage any high
and middle school teachers to discuss those signs and where to validate rumors
with their students, because many of those students simply do not know any
better. Hopefully, once they are made aware of what to look for, they can turn
around and educate THEIR parents about these issues!!
If you still need an
elective, or simply are interested, the Hoax elective and related resources are
really interesting!