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About Urban Legends,
February 29, 2008
EmpowerYou
Helping
entrepreneurs, professionals, and not-for-profits make the most of
business technology!
February, 2008
- Issue 22 | |
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| Dear
Ron, |
Did you ever receive an email like this
from a close friend or relative? You tend to believe it
because it mentions a reputable institution, Johns Hopkins
Hospital (although mispelled), and because you trust the
person who sent it to you. Many otherwise
intelligent people may actually change their living habits
as a result of the email content, and forward the email to
many friends and family members. But before you do, do some
home work first. It may be an urban legend, most of which
are untrue.
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| Origins |
| The first
study of the concept now described as an "urban legend" seems to
be Edgar Morin's La Rumeur d'Orléans (in French) in 1969. Jan
Harold Brunvand, professor emeritus of English at the University
of Utah in the United States, used the term "urban legend" in
print as early as 1979 in a book review appearing in the Journal
of American Folklore. Even at that time, researchers had been
writing about the phenomenon for a long time, but with varying
terminology.
Brunvand used his collection of legends, The Vanishing
Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends & Their Meanings, to make
two points: first, that legends, myths, and folklore do not
occur exclusively in so-called primitive or traditional
societies, and second, that one could learn much about urban
and modern culture by studying such tales. Brunvand has
since published a series of similar books, and is credited
as the
first to use the term vector (inspired by the concept of a
biological vectors) to describe a person or entity passing on
an urban
legend. | | |
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Structure
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Many urban legends are framed as
complete stories, with plot and characters. Urban legends often
resemble a proper joke, especially in the manner of transmission,
but are much darker in tone and theme.
The compelling appeal of a typical urban legend are its elements
of mystery, horror, fear or humor. Many urban legends are presented
as warnings or cautionary tales, while others might be more aptly
called "widely dispersed misinformation", such as the erroneous
belief that a college student will automatically pass all courses in
a semester if one's roommate commits suicide. While such "facts" may
not have the narrative elements of traditional urban legend, they
are nevertheless conveyed from person to person with the typical
elements of horror, humor or caution.
Much like some folk tales of old, there are urban legends dealing
with unexplained phenomena such as phantom apparitions. Few urban
legends can be traced to their actual origins. Exceptions include
the Submarine,, the
Steam tunnel
incident, and the
Hungarian suicide song
"Gloomy Sunday". |
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Propagation and
Belief |
People sometimes take urban legends to
be true, instead of recognizing them as tall tales or
unsubstantiated rumors, because of the way they are told. The teller
of an urban legend may claim it happened to a friend, which serves
to personalize and enhance the power of the narrative. Since people,
unconsciously or otherwise, often exaggerate, conflate or edit
stories when telling them, urban legends can evolve over time.
Many urban legends depict horrific crimes, contaminated foods or
other situations which would affect many people. Anyone believing
such stories might feel compelled to warn loved ones. |
Documenting Urban
Legends
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The advent of the Internet has
facilitated the proliferation of urban legends. At the same time,
however, it has allowed more efficient investigation of this social
phenomenon.
Discussing, tracking and analyzing urban legends has become a
popular pursuit. It is the topic of the Usenet newsgroup,
alt.folklore.urban, and several web sites, most notably
snopes.com.
when you receive a suspicious email check it out at
Snopes or just
type several keywords into a Google Search. Your suspicions will be
confirmed and you will avoid passing incorrect information along to
family and friends.
The United States Department of Energy has a service called
Hoaxbusters that deals with all sorts of computer-distributed hoaxes
and legends.
Since 2003 the Discovery Channel TV show MythBusters has tried to
prove or disprove urban legends by attempting to reproduce them.
Among the legends proven to be accurate by the program's hosts are
the myth of the 'Exploding Jawbreaker' (heating a jawbreaker in a
microwave can, indeed, make it explode), and the idea of filling a
sunken boat with pingpong balls to re-float it (it is possible, but
it takes an enormous amount of pingpong balls and, for the
MythBusters crew, a specially-designed 'funnel'
apparatus). |
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Today's
Hottest Urbamn legends from Snopes.com |
Postcard
Virus
Barack Obama
Celling Your
Soul
More
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Much of the
information in this newsletter was taken from
Wikipedia.
If you have a question about business technology, ask us! We
either have the answer or will find it for
you!
Sincerely, |
Ron Foreman EmpowerYou Helping entrepreneurs,
professionals, and not-for-profits make the most of business
technology! 647-999-8543
Empower You |
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