I used to have a huge problem that drove me nuts. Friends sending out emails to all of their friends with information that just was not true. I would then go to Snopes, verify it was not true and send that friend a link. I don’t get those emails much these days. I don’t know if it’s that they aren’t sending them, they just removed me from their lists (and if so, thank you) or, and I think this is more likely, all of this sharing has just moved to social media.
It happened again just yesterday. A Facebook friend from high school shared a status regarding a video that was supposedly the scariest video ever. The video was of a supposed Congressman reading H.R. 8791 (link to Snopes) so that the bill could go up for a vote. It’s a short video, and if it were true, would be one of the scariest videos ever.
In reality, it is a satire video created by The Onion. And it is well done, so I give them credit for producing a great video. The problem occurs when people start passing around the video as fact. (And if you do a Google search for the video, there are plenty of site posting it as fact.) But there is an easy solution, Snopes.
The people who run Snopes spend a lot of time verifying the truthfulness of Urban Legends. This makes it quick and easy resource for determining if something you are seeing/reading is real. And they usually post a lot of information to back up their determination of True or False. Do they ever make mistakes? Yes, but is rare (and I don’t actually have an example of a mistake). But it is the best resource I know of for determining if the Urban Legend is true or false before sending it on.
No one benefits when we continue to pass along false information is true. And usually it only takes a few minutes to verify the truthfulness of what you’ve received. So next time you are ready to pass along that great photo, video or email you just received, please head over to Snopes to verify it’s true before sharing it. We’ll all be better off.
First of all I make it my business not to pass on these “scary” videos and articles to friends and family. Not only is it they are not true it’s just a modern form of a chain letter.
That’s great! I want more people to embrace that idea. Thanks for your comments.
Yes, thank you for posting this! I see this happen a lot too. It seems in every social circle, there are the people who start spreading this stuff and the people who think to jump on Snopes and find the truth. I’m usually somewhere in the middle… I don’t usually share this stuff, but I often blindly believe it to start, and then am so thankful when someone shows up with the Snopes report! I’ll have to remember to check it more often myself (especially if I’m about to post something.)
Amy, not sharing is always a good place to start. Thanks for your comments.
Those types of videos and stories shared via social media get on my nerves, sorry had to say it! I think there are much better things to pass along such as this blog post 😉
Kirsten, thank you for the share! And I am glad to know I am not the only one who gets annoyed.
I’m also a fan of snopes, but recently people have retorted that snopes has been snoped. That is, it’s not reliable. So I’m not sure what to believe anymore :-/
Wendy, I did some checking on this after you posted. I would want to know if Snopes were not reliable. Both FactCheck.org (http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/snopescom/) and Urban Legends (http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/internet/a/snopes_exposed.htm) have debunked the idea that snopes has been snoped. I hope this makes you feel a little better about trusting Snopes.
It is not just normal ordinary people that I wish would use the site. The other day, Fox News reported a story that was created by a satire site–what no fact checkers? no internet access? Of course, what gets me about the social sharing is the number of false stories that if you stop and think about for two seconds, you would realize that they have to be false.
I totally agree, Morgan. It seems like all the major news sites seem to lack fact checkers these days. Thanks for stopping by.
Wow, this is such an important topic. I had never heard of Snopes and I appreciate you teaching me about it.
Joanne, glad I could introduce you to Snopes. Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks so much for this, and thanks for replying about Snope’s reliability. I occasionally see posts that read something like “Double Headed Chickens Coming to Your Grocery Store Soon! It’s true! Don’t Check Snopes; They’re in on This Conspiracy Too!!” Trolls gotta troll the credulous, I guess. :/
Theresa, if I were sending those messages I’d leave off that last part. Seems like your waving a red flag. But you are probably right about the trolls. Thank you for your comments.
Wow…I’m going to check out Snopes I saw on facebook about the package noodles have wax in it and it cause cancer need to verify. Thanks for sharing.
Spelling correction: has wax in it, sorry.
Nancy, I hope you found the information you need. Thanks for stopping by.