February 25, 2010

Better Safe Than Sorry...or not!

I had this conversation on facebook. Someone posted a warning to do this urgent thing or there would be dire consequences. It seemed suspect to me. Snopes.com confirmed it as a hoax. An OLD hoax that keeps getting recycled. I posted the snopes link and the comment, "it's a hoax." The responses that other people posted were effectively, "I did it anyway because even though it's a hoax it's better to be safe than sorry." ARGH! Wait, did you miss that? AAARRRGGGHHH! It's a hoax! It's always been a hoax! Maybe someday it won't be a hoax, but doing that thing NOW won't protect you THEN. It will have expired! You're thinking, "Tana's going off the deep end. Why is this such an issue?" It is an issue, my friends, because it is the attitude of herd animals. All the cows are running THAT way, so I'm going to run THAT way and when we all run off of the cliff, at least I won't go splat alone. I wanted to scream, "Don't do it! It's really a virus disguised as a hoax disguised as a public service! If you do it your transmission will fail within a week, your grandma will get hives, and your cell phone ring tones will all be changed to M.C. Hammer's 'Can't Touch This!'" That's ridiculous, you say? You don't even have to verify that on snopes because it is silly. It's so over the top, it wouldn't even qualify as a hoax. However, the REAL hoax? The one that doesn't do anything but waste a few minutes of your time and your phone usage? Well, better safe than sorry, so I think I'll go ahead and do it. I'll be available for shearing in the spring.