I do get quite a few forwarded e-mails from several friends. I enjoy some of them. However, I do often get duplicates which can clutter my mailbox. What has worried me are the forwarded pieces that have misinformation. I check them out on Snopes and have often found many that are totally False.
When I write back to friends to tell them, most are happy to know. Others seem affronted saying I'm taking it too seriously or that I should have known the e-mail was a joke.
There was one a while back about the origin of the middle finger. It was supposed to be about the Battle of Agincourt between the English and the French and how it came about from the term "Pluck yew". It wasn't true.
Another e-mail showed a photo of a man who was supposed to be the real Trayvon Martin. It said Trayvon was really 6'2" tall and 175 pounds with tattoos on his face and neck. When I checked, I found it wasn't really Trayvon at all, but a 33 year old rapper.
The problem I see with these sort of e-mails is that if people see them enough and don't check, they will believe it.
When I was teaching first grade, we were told that we needed to be careful about allowing children to use inventive spelling too long because it would imprint the incorrect spelling in their brain. We needed to allow children to write their creative stories, but we also needed to teach them the correct spelling of the simple sight words.
I think that even as adults, if we have something shown to us too many times, we'll believe it. It doesn't help that I'm often gullible. Many of the forwarded mails also have enhanced photos using PhotoShop or some other program. You just can't believe them all.
If I get a forwarded mail with no message and only a link, they get deleted right away.
On the other hand, I've gotten some great tips from quite a few of those forwarded mails and many of them have made me laugh. The others... well... yes... they just get deleted.
When I write back to friends to tell them, most are happy to know. Others seem affronted saying I'm taking it too seriously or that I should have known the e-mail was a joke.
There was one a while back about the origin of the middle finger. It was supposed to be about the Battle of Agincourt between the English and the French and how it came about from the term "Pluck yew". It wasn't true.
Another e-mail showed a photo of a man who was supposed to be the real Trayvon Martin. It said Trayvon was really 6'2" tall and 175 pounds with tattoos on his face and neck. When I checked, I found it wasn't really Trayvon at all, but a 33 year old rapper.
The problem I see with these sort of e-mails is that if people see them enough and don't check, they will believe it.
When I was teaching first grade, we were told that we needed to be careful about allowing children to use inventive spelling too long because it would imprint the incorrect spelling in their brain. We needed to allow children to write their creative stories, but we also needed to teach them the correct spelling of the simple sight words.
I think that even as adults, if we have something shown to us too many times, we'll believe it. It doesn't help that I'm often gullible. Many of the forwarded mails also have enhanced photos using PhotoShop or some other program. You just can't believe them all.
If I get a forwarded mail with no message and only a link, they get deleted right away.
On the other hand, I've gotten some great tips from quite a few of those forwarded mails and many of them have made me laugh. The others... well... yes... they just get deleted.
There is a lot, LOT, of misinformation going around on the Internet. Glad you are a critical reader!
ReplyDeleteI too will research the information and have been met with hostility for informing the sender of misinformation. It isn't long before another friend forwards me the same information they received from this same person even after they knew it was not true. The "delete" key is a valuable asset.
ReplyDeleteI delete ALL unsolicited emails. And anything sent without a subject line and just a link is immediately suspected to be filled with viruses. Good information, Kay. Everyone should be suspicious of emails sent with an agenda. :-)
ReplyDeleteI think you are smart to be leery of the information going around on the internet. I especially don't like the political stuff that tells only one side of the story.
ReplyDeleteI usually just delete but if it is an obviously erroneous political smear, I will link the Snopes source back to the sender.
ReplyDeleteI don't get the misinformation in emails as much as I get it on Facebood!
ReplyDeleteI have caught a few of these on snopes myself, usually when it sounds too good or too ludricrous to be true.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of emails at all and as odd as it may sound, I normally don't give out my email to those that want to send out "jokes or chain letters". I just don't like being on those bulk lists as I feel that it isn't very personal because the sender didn't think really about me and was just sending it out to a HUGE group. These are just some awful images that can come up sometimes and believe me, being on Facebook, I see enough and at least there, I can just sign out and not have it clutter up my inbox.
ReplyDeletehow true...another side is to be careful in forwarding personal emails just to you as it might contain info that the original writer doesn't want spread around...
ReplyDeleteAs a historian, I am constantly finding misconceptions, mistruths and other incorrect information bandied about in newspapers, on TV and in mail forwarded to me by my sister and others.
ReplyDeleteCurrent events are no better. I am constantly yelling, "That's not true" at various TV persons who repeat something they read which was wrong to begin with. Unfortunately, many of those talking head "experts" and opinion writers in the media often get the wrong end of the stick.
Some of the worst examples occurred when Sarah Palin was a candidate and many people repeated things Tina Fey had said for a laugh on Saturday Night Live while doing her 'impressions' of Sarah. I am no fan of Sarah's politics, but I think the women candidates in the previous election cycle were treated shamefully. People foolish enough to repeat something should be wary. Good for you checking out the stuff you are mailed. However, Treyvon Martin was misrepresented on CNN and on MSNBC as being a young boy when he was in fact much taller and heavier than George Zimmerman (not to reopen that can of worms). Dianne
I delete stuff that goes to my spam section, or from unknowns, and blank subject fields. So, how does one use Snopes? Just go to Snopes.com, or forward the questionable email to Snopes? If the topic is untrue, who declares it untrue at Snopes? Mahalo, DrumMajor
ReplyDeleteAll you have to do is Google "Snopes" and it will pop up. Then you type in what subject you're looking for and it will tell you if the information is True or False.
DeleteThat's what they say about the internet in general. You can't believe everything you read. While new information is propagated instantaneously, the correct information may not be. I think it is so true that repeated information can be taken as fact.
ReplyDeleteL...w
Me, I am still not used to you taking the weekends off. LOL
ReplyDeleteFolks just send me pictures. :)
Awwww... Thank you, Mage! You are too wonderful. I have to confess I am finding the transition to five days of posting a little difficult. There's been times I've wanted to post something and I have to remind myself to let it go, let it go. So I post it for the next open date. I now have posts scheduled for a week and a half. Sheesh!
Deleteweird at the Martin email
ReplyDeleteSame here, I get a lot of forwards only to find out they hold false facts. I have tried to explain but as you say some get affronted and with those people, you know in a way they truly want to believe what they read anyhow. I enjoy some forwards, the funny ones, but the rest get deleted after reading a couple of lines. By the way, that business of the middle finger, I've heard the story of our English equivalent - the 'v' sign - that archers once had - now this is kind of gross - their 'bow' fingers amputated if they were captured, so that they couldn't use their bow and arrows ever again. This was supposedly such a common practice that on the battle field the opposing army would show this now offensive sign to their enemy, to show that they still had their two bow fingers and could do battle. I am not sure if this story is based in fact but it's an interesting one and I heard it from my Dad many, many years ago.
ReplyDeleteHere's the Snopes site information on that.
Deletehttp://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.asp
It's the same story, pretty much and false.
I find the delete key quite useful. Only my deleted file is cluttered, and I clean it out about every January, on a cold afternoon with nowhere to go.
ReplyDeleteSnopes sounds like a valuable tool. I'll remember that. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI spent some time reading all your back posts. I enjoyed looking at the way you cut pineapple, because I am not good at it. I copied your mango bread. Today I bought one mango at $1 each as they were on sale at Kroger. Last year I made fig jam and for my last batch I did not have enough figs, so I added a couple of mangoes – the jam is delicious.
ReplyDeleteI used to get many forwarded emails during the Iraq war about the French – not nice emails really. Most were not true at all, so whenever I read an email like that I would go to Urban Legend at Snopes and find out if the email was true or not, such as that the Target Stores were French owned and that is why they did not contribute to US veteran’s cause, both were not true.
Fortunately I only get very beautiful mails about animals or nature. And these photos I keep and store in my library. But do you do when a newspaper article is absolutely wrong? That happened yesterday about the voyage of the refugees from Indonesia right after the war. We were taken from Singapore and transported to the Netherlands. The article was so wrong full of mistakes. It says that 300 children died on the ship. And I am sure that there were no children dying, and I was in hospital for a dhort time
ReplyDeleteKay, you are right. I have simply requested I have my name taken off their bulk mail. My elder cousin isn't speaking to me. (No loss!)
ReplyDeleteMost people I know get upset when I tell them about snopes. You are, I'm sure, much more polite and tactful than I am.
I cannot believe how people can get sucked in!
Excellent post!
I'm not getting those emails much any more, but I do see a lot of "enhanced' stuff on Facebook. I just skim past them.
ReplyDelete