The Internet makes us stupid!

Your friends have sent them to you - urgent e-mails that say "Congress is preparing legislation that will outlaw puppies and small furry animals! Act now!" Or, "if you open 3 e-mails in a row and the middle one says 'Hey Big Boy' your computer will vanish in a puff of smoke and you will never get a good nights sleep again."

Or sometimes they are not dire, but are simply factoids, like the one that showed up the other day pointing out that July 2011 will have 5 weekends - 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays, and 5 Sundays - and this will not happen again for another 823 years! Really? Here's  July 2011:

And here's March 2013:

And I could show you a bunch more - all of which are less than 823 years apart. Keeping up with the watch band calendars provided some insight into calendar math; a comet may come by only every 823 years, but there are only 14 possible calenders and they repeat in intervals ranging from 6 to 11 years.

What is it about the Internet that makes us stupid? I saw this referred to as "argument from authority;” basically that means if people trust the source of some tidbit of information, they believe it. And apparently a huge number of people think that if they see something posted on a blog somewhere,or receive it in an e-mail from a friend and it doesn’t contradict their world view, it must be true.

Work with me here, The Internet has been around a while and by now we ought to be a little bit smarter about the stuff that comes screaming into our mailboxes, or we see on blogs. BTW, the best way to tell if something is phony or a hoax, is if it comes with instructions asking the reader to forward the item. When in doubt, Snope it out.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go change my Facebook profile to my favorite food. If I do that, the FDA will donate $1 to homeless shelters.  I know that's so, because 6 of my friends have posted that in their status.