Wednesday, March 24, 2010

A world of knowledge and many are still stupid

Okay, maybe stupid's too strong a word.

 

But I've seen my fair share of forwarded emails on this or that, or groups on facebook claiming something outlandish is happening.  And I wonder to myself, how can the 1,000,000 people in that group not see that it's a total scam.

 

We live in a world today where we have access to just about anything we want.  Google (or Bing) "it", and you can find your answers.  But often people will just click the easiest thing closest to them (forward, or "join") and become part of the mindless masses.

 

When it comes across my desktop, just do a bit of digging - who knows what information you're spreading!  Which is why I love SNOPES.COM

 

For example, the "facebook is charging a fee".  This one has come up SEVERAL times in the past while.  This group(s) on facebook have been shown as scams to steal your contact information.  The CEO has had to say publicly "we will never charge".

 

I also like the ones that go along the lines of "join this group and we'll show you the answer".  A simple one line search will produce those answers and put your information at risk.

 

The one that got me most upset lately was the "cellphones can pop popcorn".  I mean really... think about it?  Would we be allowed to actually put microwave strength radios to our heads?

 

I always wondered how that douche who said vaccines are bad for you got away with it for so long...

 

Maybe it's because recently I had received some 'hack' in my hotmail account, and I lost emails and all my contacts.  And an email went out to EVERYBODY telling them to check out a cool price on an iPhone.  Some quick proofing of the email made it obvious that it wasn't me, yet several people reported they clicked that link I sent and it didn't work.

 

*Sigh*

 

All this technology to help us, and we're still pretty dumb.

 

Oh, and if anything that you click in your futures leads you to something you can't get rid of, check this out:

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