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Urban Legends
Urban legends are stories that often tell the dark side of human life. Urban legends, sometimes rooted in truth, are essentially morality stories. Their endings provide warnings and cautions. They usual advocate conservative behavior and a suspicion of the unknown or unfamiliar. They are a type of folklore, one of the few remaining oral traditions in our culture today. And even this oral tradition has almost drown in the new form of urban legends, netlore. Email now quickly diseminates half-truths, errors, scam, and practical jokes to millions of people across the world instantly, many of the recepients believing it and forwarding this spam to their friends and family members. Erroneous virus warnings have also clogged the communication pipes of the internet, not just providing unwanted email, but making it more difficult to distinguish viruses over which computer users need to be genuinely concerned.
Understanding Urban Legends, Netlore, and Hoaxes
As defined above, Urban Legends are stories, apocryphal tales believed to be true, warning of doom for those that venture outside the realm of caution and societal bounds. They are, or are closely related to, folklore. My personal addition to this definition is that for a rumor or story to truly count as an urban legend, it must be passed down generation to generation (although exact details may change, especially to keep it up to date). Urban legends sometimes may contain or be based on an actual event, but have been so distorted as to be no longer true. As with any myth, the lesson of an urban legend may be true or beneficial despite the lack of actual factual information (although often the lesson is partriarchical, xenophobic, and/or conformist). For even more information on urban legends, click here. (1)
Netlore is an urban legend waiting to happen. It is a current rumor or story spread through email usually or websites to warn or alert friends and family of certain events or news items. To me, netlore is defined by its immediacy and relevance to current events. Netlore is not always a story, but sometimes a piece of information (such as all the "free giveaways" you see). If these stories are not transmitted via electronic means, then they become cautionary tales or simple rumors.
A Hoax is related to both of these items, but is far more malicious simply because of intent. Hoaxes are the intentional dissemination of false information for the purpose of creating panic, confusion, hysteria, or worse. Often hoaxes get spread by well-meaning people. Many hoaxes could be stopped if people would not automatically click the "forward" button on email and instead check out the facts.
FOAF - "Friend of a friend" This is a common way to identify if a story or email is suspicious and possibly an urban legend or netlore. Is there an authentic, reliable, verifiable source for the story? Often, these stories didn't happen to your immediate friend, but more likely than not their sister's hairdresser's dog-sitter. Below are some other ways to determine if a story is authentic.
I Bring You 15 Commandments for Recognizing Netlore and Hoaxes (2)
| 15 Frequent Use of UPPER CASE LETTERS and Exclamation Points!!!! |
| 14 The message seems to be written so as to persuade you rather than inform you |
| 13. It has been forwarded multiple times |
| 12. Having been forwarded to every other person in the world, it tells you to forward the message to everyone you know |
| 11. It's too good (or funny or horrible) to be true....because it's NOT! |
| 10, Surprisingly, this rash of attacks by HIV-infecting gangster doberman pinchers has not made CNN yet |
| 9. It's true, so says my FOAF (see above) |
| 8. Is there a "punch line" or big pay-off at the end of the story? If it reads like a joke, it probably is one |
| 7. Are there logical inconsistencies in the story? Guess why |
| 6. Does your common sense say "hey that doesn't seem right." Trust your gut. |
| 5. Are there claims that you know are false - one false fact indicates more |
| 4. Look for puns or subtle jokes in the message text that may indicate somebody is out to fool you |
| 3. Have you heard a similar story or piece of information, but with a few different details? This is a big blinking red light. |
| 2. The message offers no supporting information or outside sources verifying the message. |
| 1. It starts out with "This is NOT a hoax" or "This is NOT an urban legend." Me thinks the lady doth protest too much. |
How to Respond to Someone Sending You Netlore, a Hoax, or UL (3)
Thanks for the information. When I see stuff like this, I usually hop on over to [either www.snopes.com or urbanlegends.about.com] and check it out. I found out that this is actually an urban legend. Check it out yourself at [insert specific URL page here].
Thanks again. Make sure you let others know about this.
| Urban Legend Links | ||
| Urban Legend Reference Pages (snopes) | The big king kahuna mama-jama of urban legend pages: what's true, what's not, and usually an interesting accounting of the origin of the legend | |
| Urban Legends and Folklore with David Emery (about) | Another fantastic resource spot, especially for current netlore | |
| A direct link to Emery's updated netlore page | ||
| Scambusters | A good online newsletter of tricks, scams, and hoaxes going around | |
| Museum of Hoaxes | Hoaxes throughout the centuries. Make sure to take their gullibility tests | |
| Urban Legends and Modern Myths | An accounting of common urban legends | |
| Darwin Awards | Celebrating true accounts of stupidity and acknowledging fun myths | |
| Christian Urban Legends | Tackling legends that have specifically sprung up around and concerning the Christian faith - from a Christian perspective | |
| Urban Legend Research Centre | *NO LONGER UPDATED* Still a nice site for finding out many different long-standing myths, hoaxes, and ULs | |
| Campus Legends: Are They Truth or Fiction | Article from the Minnesota Daily about university myth and legend | |
| How Urban Legends Work | Interesting article on the perpetuation of urban legends | |
| CNN Interview with Jan Harold Brunvand | Interview with the preeminent scholar of urban legends and folklore | |
| The Correx Archive | Archive of the transcript of an Australian science television program that looks at some parapsychology and has a series of interviews with notorious debunker James Randi (the Amazing Randi). | |
| Urban Legend Combat Kit | I don't really like wading through their software pitch, but you might find this beneficial. | |
| Evolution of the Vanishing Hitchhiker Legend | A neat look at the variations on this legend throughout time. | |
| Urban Chillers | UL entertainment. video recreations of urban legends and general spooky stuff | |
| Virus Hoaxes | ||
| Cliff's Notes: How to Spot a Virus Hoax | The publisher notorious for breaking down books to their bare essentials breaks down the information on identifying hoaxes | |
| Symantec's Virus Hoax Web Page | Virus hoax information from the Symantec software company | |
| McAfee's Virus Hoax Web Page | Virus hoax information from McAfee software | |
| Hoaxbusters | Federal government information on hoaxes - not suprisingly, a little hard to navgate | |
| Vmyths | *NO LONGER UPDATED* It's a shame this site has ceased to be updated - it was the best virus hoax site out there. It still contains information useful on virus hoaxes up through July 2003. | |
It may be surprising to find out that a good deal of literature exists concerning urban legends. Jan Harold Brunvand has a series of books on urban legends, all good. I've included two of what I consider his best books below.
Click on the book cover images below to purchase these books at Amazon.
| Title | Author | Publisher Information | Comments | |
| The Vanishing Hitchhiker | Jan Harold Brunvand | 1981 W.W. Norton | I like this book best of Brunvard's books because of he discusses American ULs' history and meaning more in depth than other works. (The cover depicted to the right is the cover of the first edition - it has now been issued with a new cover.) |   |
| Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends | Jan Harold Brunvand | 1999 W. W. Norton | Probably the most complete compilation of ULs in print. |   |
| The Encyclopedia of Urban Legends | Jan Harold Brunvand | 20001W.W. Norton | More myths from the master. Probably the most comprehensive listing there is. |  |
| Flim-Flam! | James Randi | 1982 Prometheus Books | The Amazing Randi tackles high profile hoaxes , parapsychology, and pseudo-science |   |
| The Faith Healers | James Randi | 1989 Prometheus Books | The Amazing Randi exposes the tricks and techniques of evangelists who claim they can heal the sick |   |
| The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark | Carl Sagan | 1996 Ballantine | As an atheist, Sagan's contempt for anything religious, unkown or unproveable sometimes interferes with this otherwise good primer on logical, rational and critical thinking. |   |
| Mouse Tales: A Behind The Ears Look At Disneyland | David Koenig | 1994 Bonaventure Press | More expose than UL bebunking, Koenig's controversial look at Disney does touch on some of the myths surrounding the mouse. |   |
Did I miss something?
Did I get something wrong? Is there a link or book I should have listed? Is
a link dead or broken?
Did you find this page useful?
Let me know!
References Used
(1) I rely heavily on the
UL definition used by David Emery and Harold Jan Brunvard
(2) I've adapted and modified and stolen this list from David Emery and Computerworld.com
(3) This idea from the Urban Legend Combat Kit at Netsquirrel.com
Urban Legends depicted above starting top left (all false):
Tecumseh's cure - Supposedly the Native American Chief Tecumseh placed a curse on the presidents of the United States that has resulted in every president elected in a "0" year (or year divisible by 20) to die in office. President Reagan seemed to have beat it, however. Painting "Tecumseh" by LauraLee K. Harris
Spiders in your hair - When beehive hairdos were popular, one girl supposedly teased her hair so high and waited so long to wash it that a spider laid eggs in her hair and the baby spiders hatched in the do, killing the girl with their venomous bites. Later updated to include drealocks and braids.
Alligators in the sewers - Giant alligators are supposed to lurk in the sewers of New York from when baby alligators from Florida were a fad and parents quickly flushed the poor things down the toilet after arriving back home from vacation.
Disney - A thousand different rumors circulate about Walt Disney and Disney theme parks. Some are true, some aren't.
Coca-Cola - Also the subject of innumerable stories, allegedly deadly when consumed with the product next to it. Yes, it originally contained cocaine.
Pop Rocks - Allegedly killed "Mikey" of Life cereal commercial fame when he ingested them with Coca Cola. "Mikey" is doing quite fine, however.
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