A few weeks ago, some people I know began circulating a rumor. This surrounded a mysterious dog fighting ring, which stuck stickers on the fences of homes in order to steal their pets and eventually make them fight each other. It spread from person to person, each one horrified that someone would actually do this.
Nobody actually does this. It doesn't make much sense, your beloved family pet would make a terrible fighting dog, if it was aggressive enough to be a fighting dog you would not want it in your home. If someone was prone to making dogs fight, it would make more sense to find a half-feral stray or find a shady breeder than snatch a dog that people would miss, from a home that is relatively protected, which would not want to fight other dogs anyway.
But, it strikes a chord with people. They love their dogs, they hate the idea of dog fights and the idea that their dog could be snatched by a low life who would force it to do terrible things is a frightening proposition. So, the rumor spreads, just like any other rumor that gains traction online.
These aren't the only ones. You will have celebrity quotes which were never said by the celebrities in question. You will have medical advice backed with no evidence at all. You have crime sprees which are scary, but don't actually make much sense. And they're all spread, often by good-natured people who just want their friends to be safe, healthy and happy. It's a frustrating thing for those of us who see our friends spreading these rumors without actually thinking.
Each step of the way, it's not too difficult to stop these rumors. A quick search will often find sources that refute the various outlandish claims. But, most people don't actually look for a source. Their friends believe it, and their friends are trustworthy, so they spread it to more people and it eventually makes it around the world. The crazy rumors are suddenly something everyone has heard and many people believe.
This is nothing new, but it's something that has become progressively worse as people are more connected with each other. Strange rumors spread rapidly because people assume they can trust their friends, so we get stuff that, while frightening, doesn't quite pass the sniff test. Many of the crime rumors don't make sense from the criminal point of view. Much of the medical advice is rooted in fear tactics, but the actual solutions are a bit too simple. The celebrity quotes are usually too on the nose, and never quite sound like something the celebrity in question would say.
We need more people to think critically about what they're reading. They need to look for evidence to back up the claims before they spread them to their friends and family. Believing anything that is spread around the internet means eventually one could encounter a rumor that is genuinely destructive, something which could legitimately harm their family. The dog rumor is ultimately harmless, at worst it causes people to keep a closer eye on their pet. But what if there is a piece of medical advice that is actually more harmful than anything? Or, someone could be implicated in a crime they had no connection with, which has happened more than once already. That's the problem, we need to think about what we spread around, rather than post it blindly..
