Dangerous Communication

The internet is dangerous because people can pass along bad information without fact-checking the source.

When communication was printed with ink on paper, people were more responsible about what they wrote. Rarely did they simply forward something someone else wrote. But easy access to e-mail and the internet changed all that. Not only don’t people write original letters, but many don’t even bother to cut and paste before forwarding e-mails that were sent to them.

A case in point – someone recently forwarded an email that expressed outrage that the words “In God We Trust” were no longer printed on the new presidential one dollar coins being released by the US Mint. Similar to the state quarters, which were issued at a rate of four per year, these one dollar coins depict each of our former presidents. The e-mail I received suggested we boycott these coins because of the lack of the religious motto. To some, this seemed like the appropriate thing to do in protest. A modern day Boston tea party, if you will. There was only one problem – the e-mail was bogus.

The words “In God We Trust,” are, in fact, etched onto each coin, albeit on the rim. Since many people don’t bother to check the facts, some will probably blindly follow the e-mail’s suggestion.

In the long run, such activity will not amount to a hill of beans in this instance. These coins will probably only be of interest to collectors and will not see very much acceptance in everyday commerce. But the mere fact that people can be influence by inaccurate, or worse yet, untrue information, is frightening.

A recent story about someone who died, included a quote the deceased allegedly uttered. The quote was innocuous, but it was later discovered that someone had fabricated it and had inserted it into a webpage about the deceased. A reporter writing an obituary, saw it and printed it without knowing it was a phony quote. The reporter’s obit was then published by a reputable news source. The question that must now be asked is: How can we believe anything we read?

Unfortunately, the answer is: We can’t always.

We have to become Doubting Thomases.