Indeed! Rumors, lies and innuendos spread far, wide and fast on the internet

Indeed i agree on rumors, lies and innuendos spread far, wide and fast on the internet. To begin with, news of this sort spread far, wide and fast on their own regardless of any media! but with the guide of the internet, i'm pretty sure they spread faster than wild fire.

People today have such easy access to the internet and they spend most of their time at the computer that they seem to be desperate for something more entertaining than the usual entertainments like the TV, video games and sorts. in order to cure the boredom, people start creating (or even visiting) gossip, news and sites with weird facts. and surely enough, the trend of visiting such websites gets contagious and everybody is visiting those websites. this in return, has turned into something we do everyday, something normal, a routine and therefore people have gotten so used to reading something that was from the beginning a 'joke or something entertaining, i wouldnt believe in such nonsense' to something that is 'true' and 'i think this really happened'. it's how we have accessed the internet so much that it has become a part of us that has lead us to believe anything we Googled in!

for example, who never gets those annoying mails forwarded by friends about a new pandemic, or a child is in a serious illness and you forwarding this email will automatically donate an amount money to help her?? some actually take those emails seriously and faithfully forward them! for instance, the case of the missing girl, Ashley Flores. a 13-year-old Philidelphia girl who has been missing for 2 weeks has been circulating in the internet in 2006. thanks to a site that investigates the truth of junk mails, (snopes.com) it was a complete hoax afterall!

then there is this article from the 'Unbelievable' column (by Nury Vittachi) in the Reader's Digest (June 2009 issue) where he taunts about how gullible internet users can be when it comes to rumours and hoaxes. he mentiones that there is this email from Doctor Idowu Ndubueze in Nigeria who is willing to give you 14 millions Dollars if he opens a bank account for him.

would we respond to such an easy deal if it was spoken by someone? or seen on a newspaper? surely, we'd turn it down and say that it's IMPOSSIBLE! but if we read it on the internet, we somehow respond differently, somehow we are convinced by some simple electronic mail that it is POSSIBLE.... just by showing some identification (which can be fake) and an email or contact, we would easily be swayed that 'this is real!'

so, in conclusion, it's undeniable that rumours, lies and innuendos can spread really fast, wide and far, but if it was spreaded on the internet, even the silliest of claims can change people's judgement on the reality of it and come to be so gullible to believe everything they read.