Urban Legends on the Web

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Urban Legends on the Web

Urban legends are fascinating to almost everyone, and it would follow that there would be many websites available for the discussion of them. A simple search turns up thousands of "hits" on the subject, so how do we know which ones to believe? A good research site will have detailed information explaining the confirmation or rejection of the legend. References must be cited, especially when a legend is being "proven" as true. In addition, the site should also be easy to navigate and convenient. In my own curiosity, I have come across two sites that are excellent, the About.com Urban Legend Guide, and the Urban Legend Reference Page found at www.snopes.com, which was created by the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society. In contrast, there are websites (not to mention e-mail chain letters) that perpetuate false legends, and those that just do a poor job of evaluating them. In this category is the Urban Myth Archive, an amateur archive of myths heard in New Hampshire and Monkeyburgers, a site filled with interesting legends, but lacking adequate proof to back the conclusions.

The About.com Urban Legend Guide, address, http://urbanlegends.about.com/culture/beliefs/urbanlegends/mbody.htm?COB=home&PM=112_100_T, is an invaluable resource for researching urban legends. Upon signing into the page, the reader is given a list of topics to choose from, which always includes currently circulating hoaxes and legends as well as an archive full of information on every conceivable legend and internet hoax. Around Halloween time, of course, there are ghost stories and legends of the past that are explained and critiqued, but I found the most interesting section to be the one on e-mail hoaxes. Every individual with a...

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...good research tool, but it needs some more concrete evidence. After all, how can we believe that the author is correct without proof? That is as silly as believing an urban legend just because your brother's girlfriend's cousin told you so.

In my search for urban legend sites, I found an incredible amount of information on the net, some of it high quality, professionally presented information, and the rest simply unverified. The truth is that the connection we experience as part of the World Wide Web can either work for or against us. If we choose to evaluate information carefully before we accept it, and, more importantly, before we pass it on to others, the Web is invaluable. If, however, we take the information from a website and assume it is true without adequate proof, we are just perpetuating myths and untruths. This is the importance of critical reading.

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