The virus called 'misinformation'

Once upon a time getting mail was an event. There were no telephones, no cables, certainly no emails…just the post.

Quaint letter writing portfolios and desks constructed by fine craftsmen were the hallmarks of the well-to-do. Gentlemen and ladies would sit and pen their requests, replies, rebuttals and family ruminations, then one of the household staff would send it on its way through the postal system.

In those days you could get two or three deliveries a day, but there was a lot of man power involved so people didn’t waste their notes.

Then the postal system made it to the modern era. Even before the digital age people found a way to annoy the recipient of mail.

Remember back to your school days. Remember the chain letter. If you’re like me you will not remember it fondly.

First came the chain letters from your friends – a very unfriendly thing to do. Harmless, but not very nice, putting pressure on a nine year old that if they didn’t send six copies of the letter to friends they would have {insert appropriately unnerving consequence here}.

That was all harmless fun as I said, and although while no nine year olds ever had {appropriately unnerving consequences} actually happen, they did lose hours of sleep. Because you’re nine you’re just not quite sure…

Then as an adult you may have had the occasional chain letter arrive in the post. The genuine stamp-on-the-front post. Again these notes were filled with more promises than a politician in an election year – some good (send to at least 12 friends and you’ll be guaranteed to get good luck and great coffee for the next 17 days), and some not so good (if you don’t send this on to at least 12 friends you’ll get some horrible fungal disease in a very inconvenient part of your anatomy).

Annoying? Certainly. But some comfort in at least knowing the moron who sent it to you had to shell out for all those stamps.

Enter the age of email.

Now there is nothing stopping your inbox filling with chain emails and hoax emails. Sadly even your spam and junkmail filter won’t protect you here because often these electronic wastes of time and space come from your friends.

There are emails that threaten all manner of terrifying outcomes to you and yours if you don’t forward it to “everyone in your address book”. Chain emails are frustrating, but at least a quick delete makes them go away - until one of your shared friends decides to take it up and you get several versions of the same note.

The type of email I have a real issue with is the email sent from mates who really need to do their research. It could be the latest animal cruelty petition, or anti-Islam expose relying on misinformation re-crafted from material which is years old, and contains graphic yet completely inaccurate and out of context photos.

These emails hit the emotion button and people sign petitions (if you check the links are not actually legitimate anyway) and perpetuate myths based on incorrect information.

Sadly these well meaning yet ill-informed friends often send this stuff on to you without checking any form of authenticity. The iffy content is one thing, but when people click on the sometimes dodgy links contained they can open themselves up to all sorts of electronic mischief.

To limit the ignorance of the community just think twice before not only forwarding an email which is a chain or hoax email, actually check the authenticity of the content.

A great site to visit is www.snopes.com – one of the best known hoax busting sites on the net. And yes I do appreciate the irony of using an internet site to bust other internet sites. You might be surprised at just how much crap is being pedalled as fact, and pedalled by some pretty credible people.

Be sceptical about hot-button topics. Chances are the email you’ve received which has shocked you, or scared you, or showcased another conspiracy theory about one topic or another is actually a hoax.

Check it out before you make an opinion about the content.

And please – don’t forward chain emails and hoax emails. You might think your mates like it. Most don’t. They’re just too polite to tell you they just delete it as soon as they see the fw: at the front.

Don’t spread the virus called misinformation.