Forwards...why?

When I check my personal email, guaranteed eight out of ten emails I find in my Inbox are forwarded ones. These forwards, most of the time, are about the side effects of using certain products, the horror treatments of certain religion or some stupid chain letters.

In my early days of emails and Internet, I believed almost whatever that was sent to me … I mean most of them seemed so credible. Remember the mail that said if your lipstick turns black when rubbed against gold, that means it has mercury in it? After getting that mail, I immediately whipped up my lipstick and rubbed my gold ring against a smear. Lo and behold, it turned black! My friends who tried the experiment also got similar effects regardless of the lipstick brand. Of course; it took me some time to learn the truth from one of the sites debunking such myths.

When I thought about it, it struck me that any email of such, albeit sent by my closest friends, may only have partial truth or sometimes far from it. From then on, I make verifications on such emails. You may think that it’s a waste of time when I could have just ignored them. Well, it is alright to ignore if the information is merely about the side effects of certain products. What if the email is more damaging especially when it involves religion, race or culture? If my matured highly educated friends can believe these information to be true, then I think it is my duty to at least let them know about the mistakes they are making. The dissemination of information through the Internet is very powerful and almost always exploited. So my friends, please make sure that what you are sending to people out there are accurate and true.

Hhmm… maybe I should try sending out a concocted story about how coconut oil has chemicals that make you go bald and see if anyone believes it?? ;-)