Internet Legends You Should Know
You certainly know urban legends already. Stories, misconceptions and myths that sound enticing and thus get spread through gossip all over the place.
Urban legends mostly proliferate where people use to meet for small talk, thus “urban”. The Internet is even worse when it comes to such legends.
- Lies
- hoaxes
- fake news
and other
legends spread on the Web even faster due to low accountability and “viral” social media.
Thus I decided to open your eyes to Internet legends everybody including you should know when browsing the Web. It’s good for your
- privacy
- security
- sanity.
Check these out and tell me more in case I forgot some:
The Web is open and uncensored: In the early days authorities tried (and some still try) to scare users by telling them that it’s far too open and uncensored.
You can download bomb building manuals everywhere etc. they would tell you! Well, try searching for such material.
Not only you’ll have difficulties to find it on Google, even manuals on how to block trains (to stop nuclear waste transports) have been taken off the Web.
Ideally you don’t try to search for it as you are NOT anonymous on the Web. See below. At least use a relatively private search engine like DuckDuckGo or Ecosia.
The Web is anonymous: You just need to use a nickname, don’t you? Well no. Even without tracking your IP you can get identified among millions of others just via your unique browser fingerprint.
Every Google search can be tracked back to you and will be used against you in court.
Write “I want to kill the president” on the Web and your home will be raided within 24 hours even if it was just a joke. You don’t have to be a killer though, being a blogger is enough.
The Web never forgets: Old media like to scare new Internet users about how the Web never forgets what they have published once.
It will shatter their future career etc. as potential employers check your name in Google first. That’s stupid scare-mongering.
I’m on the Web since 1997 and I have been publishing ever since. Most of it sadly disappeared as many sites end up as dead links after a few years.
Also nobody beside the CIA will check all the 200 results in Google for your name. There are by far too many applicants to do that.
Stay yourself and make sure the top results are quite OK. Everybody has some issues so a completely clean person is suspicious.
Become known on the Web for the great things you do or write and nobody will care for the occasional rant.
People are genuine on the Web: Your Facebook friends, bloggers and Twitter followers are genuine, aren’t they? Especially when they recommend books or other products.
Unfortunately most bloggers do not disclose affiliate links.
Most bloggers link books on Amazon to earn a commission when you buy them. On Twitter and Facebook even fewer people disclose affiliations.
Posting images of yourself or your kids is safe: You can post images of yourself or your children online – whether it’s Instagram or your blog – can’t you?
Well, anybody can use them to stalk, abuse and ridicule you. The fewer images of yourself you post the better.
Just think of the Spanish politician whose image got used to show how Bin Laden might look by now.
The graphic designer who made the photo montage just the image from the Web.
Also many scammers just take off photos from teh Web and try to trick people using your face.
Social Media sites are democratic: On social sites like Twitter, Facebook or YouTube the best content gets shared the most as the “wisdom of crowds” decides. Sadly not.
Who has the most followers or fans can push anything. You have seen this during political campaigns in recent years a lot.
The social sites themselves are not democratic but governed by profit oriented top down hierarchies.
The owner decides ultimately what gets published or pushed. At the end of the day
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Rupert Murdoch
- the Google billionaires
or someone else with a similar fortune decides what type of content gets the most visibility.
You have no rights on such sites and your account can get terminated for any petty reason without prior notice.
You have to listen to influencers: Some people have tens of thousands of fans and people readily retweet, link or “like” them. Why?
Influencers are known for being famous on the Web so what they say must be true! It isn’t.
They spread nonsense all the time. They tell you that blogging or SEO is dead to gain attention and links while behind the scenes they spam the Web. Beware of self proclaimed Web celebs.
Online celebrities famous for being famous will often sell you things or lifestyles that are not sustainable for mere mortals or they will simply mislead you to reflect their or their sponsors agenda.
Mainstream media are unbiased or “objective”: You only can trust old media then, the NYT, CNN, BBC. True? Nope.
Even the New York Times has spread the lies about the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. CNN has been infamous for its pro-war propaganda, yes, CNN, not just Fox News.
The BBC aired a Yes Men hoax twice before it was taken down. Every media outlet, be it a newspaper, a news network or a blog has an agenda.
You need to know what the agenda is and who pays them to be able to see through their bias. The BBC is basically a state run service paid by the United Kingdom government e.g.
The others are evil, we’re fine: The Web is so full of propaganda I could puke any day. Just read any news item about Iran. For instance you’ll find plenty of stories about homosexuals getting killed for being gay.
While I’m as pro-gay as a straight man can get and I firmly oppose the death penalty you just need to search on Iranian news sources to find out the truth.
Just search for the name of the alleged innocent gays who have been sentenced to death. They usually have been convicted of rape, murder or other gruesome crimes.
Is Iran the most dangerous nation on Earth? Well, think about this: Iran hasn’t started a war or armed conflict in the last 100 years.
In the meantime the US has fought in over 50 wars and armed conflicts it has started itself. The US has still the most nuclear weapons on the planet. It could obliterate Earth a thousand times.
How to spot lies on the Web?
How can you spot lies, myths and Internet legends? Well, they sound too good to be true. They resonate with our fears and hopes.
They tell us we’re the best and can get everything at the expense of others. They appeal to our lowest instincts.
Please use common sense, read between the lines and check several sources with different agendas to find out the truth.
Ideally you also check original sources. For example when the covid panic struck I focused on the WHO site and other reliable sources.
They quickly reported that the virus is not as scary as it seemed and mostly affected elderly people with existing conditions.
Meanwhile the mainstream press still tried to scare everybody for months and years. Bad news are selling better than good ones.
I enjoyed your reading your list. But despite all the drawbacks you given the Internet is, overall, a tremendous tool for freedom of expression. Yes, each of your information sources has a potential secret agenda, but it’s better than being ignorant. As you say, it’s important to have common sense and weigh up not just what is written but who is writing it and what are their motives. The wisdom of crowd does apply if you make sure that your information is coming to you from many different sources.
Yeah Dave, true! I love the Interwebs, that’s why I’m here but you have to cautious and look out for potential mine fields. Like in real life but you get fatter on the Web ;-)
The wisdom of crowds does not work as we would like it to though: The most popular stuff or opinions are not automatically the best ones.
Hitler has been tremendously popular as well. ;-)
First, whether or not links and sites disappear, there are those (mostly in academia) that are now attempting to archive everything that’s published on the web. I don’t know if that can really be done, but…
Also, your comment about no one searching through results for your name on Google is incorrect. My boss told me he did it to me before he hired me and it is routine to do these kinds of checks in some industries, like, just for example, computer software development.
Second, since you are not specific about the details, it is impossible to know what you are talking about in regard to gays being murdered. Gays are murdered, in Iran, in the US, and elsewhere, and probably more frequently than you think. Try talking (in a casual setting) to a few law enforcement officers about what is left out of their reports and a few newspaper editors about what is left out of the newspaper sometime… I guarantee you it will be an eye-opening experience.
Eli: The depth of the background check depends on the job you apply. In case you want to work for the US army you better don’t show up on a peace demonstration or join activist groups.
On the other hand, when you apply for an average job, they will check a few results. You even should publish some rants so that they can find something, otherwise you might look too good to be true. Nobody is perfect.
As to the Gay killings in Iran I was specific enough. Just search for [Iran gay death penalty] and you’ll find lots of stories distorting reality where people were allegedly killed for being gay while in reality they were convicted murderers and rapists.
Again, this is just an example. This post is not meant to deal with gay rights or anti-gay hate crimes. I’ve used that to illustrate the propaganda machine. The US has whole deprtaments dealing with psychological warfare aka preparing a population for war by depicting the adversaries as inhumane and despicable.
All governments lie and all news sources are at least occasionally influenced by those lies. On what basis do you assume all stories of gays being murdered are untrue?
My point is that, what one discovers in the media (sometimes including the internet) is not always the whole story. Facts and details are sometimes covered up for various reasons. This is particularly true in areas concerned about their reputations, sometimes over the simple concern of whether businesses (employers) will want to locate there, or because the local economy depends heavily on tourism, or sometimes when there are serious political ramifications to consider. If you can develop a friendly relationship with some law enforcement officers and news editors, I believe you may discover there is much truth to what I have said.
As for specificity, you did not mention any specific name or case. That and only that was my meaning. I suppose we can guess or do our own research (and then guess) as to exactly which cases and claims you are talking about, but you were not specific in spite of your claim to the contrary. Either that or you have an odd definition of specificity that I haven’t heard about.
In most other respects though, this is pretty good post. I did not mean to imply otherwise. Peace.
LOL @ “It could obliterate Earth a thousand times.”
This is one of those internet lies you’re talking about?
Eli: Again, it seems you do not read the article closely enough. I am not talking about Gays being murdered but murderers who happen to be gay and who get the death penalty in Iran. Also your unwillingness to use Google for yourself is disturbing.
Just check the names of those who go the death penalty. Most US sources fail to mention that these people were criminals at all. They focus on their sexual orientition as if it was OK to kill someone as long as you are homosexual.
This post is not about gay people being murdered, OK? So let’s end this futile discussion, basically me exlplaining you what the post is about again and again.
In case you believe that the Iranian judicial system is “murdering gays” I can’t convince you anyways. Then this here is even more futile.
Carl: No. So how many nuclear weapons does the US have? What do you think? And how many of them do you need to destroy the planet? Ever heard of the nuclear winter? Please don’t cite “sources” like Wikipedia please.
You will quickly find out that its really difficult to find out anything useful about those via the Internet because here the information is scarce. Nobody likes to talk about US owned WMDs and nobody besides the US army knows the whole truth here. The only nuclear weapons we hear on the Web all the time are the not yet existing Iranian ones.
Don’t know how the comments have gone in that direction! I think ignoring all of that – you only have to watch Fox News for about 3 or 4 minutes to see how distorted the news can be by the media! It would be naive to think that foreign news is accurately reproduced. How is it not massive distortion by every network to report some celebrity gossip above 1000’s dying in a foreign disaster?
Anyway the post was about internet myths, and was clearly food for thought!
Your ending paragraph sums it all up… if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is (too good to be true).
I’d put it this way… the internet is no different than real life, except that you need to be twice as skeptical. :)
PS. or maybe even ten times as skeptical!
By the way, I meant to mention that I think “google instant” may have created a new (temporary) legend who goes by the name of Jessie.
Do a search for Jessie James or Jessie Ventura, and notice the instant results (and images) that pop up as soon as you’ve finished typing the first word “Jessie” (at least here in California)… I can’t remember her last name and had never heard of her before today, but she may become this week’s SEO legend, or at least until google “fixes” this. :)
This is one interesting post. I like reading it. There’s one thing about privacy, if a person does not want to disclose information about him/her then don’t :). I do tweet regularly but a very limited info’s
I agree with everything you said in that post. I think everyone should read this list to become more aware. Most of the people I interact with have no idea about the truths of the internet. Or even how to wade through the tons of garbage to find something worthwhile.
Your article is very informative & I agree with most of what you said here. About the news, most of them are just “sensationalized” so they can get more people reading their articles.
Beware of self proclaimed Web celebs. You’ll be shocked that they sometimes promote some pretty annoying forms of internet marketing and even Black hat tricks.
Every Google search can be tracked back to you and will be used against you in court. I wasn’t aware this was possible at all. It’s about time we start rounding off f**ls who under the ANONYMOUS guise, write so much evil about other folks that they push them to the brink of suicide, drug addictions and what have you. Cyberbullies ain’t excluded.
I think what it boils down to (for me) is to treat everything with some degree of skepticism. Question and attempt to get to the answers that work for you. For example, no amount of reading the line “build relationships in social media networking” made sense to me until I opened my Facebook, Twitter, Twitter Directories and Delicious accounts did I realize that just sitting, making friends, following with hopes of getting followed, etc. does nothing until you actually spend time to dialogue with others on common interests.
how long after posting this article before your home was raided?