What is a “snope”? A snope is basically an internet urban legend perpetuated through shares on social media. They normally appear in the form of a short anecdote designed to illicit a reaction from the reader, and in turn have that reader “share” the snope to keep the snope going. I am writing this piece because I notice that snopes are apparently making a comeback in popularity. I personally am seeing them more and more. They normally seem to appear on Facebook. It is my belief this is due to the fact Facebook is the most popular social networking site for folks with absolutely no internet “street smarts”. The “street smarts” to realize that just about anything asking you to “share” it, “post it to your timeline”, or asking if “you have the guts to re-post” is pure bullshit designed to manipulate the reader into perpetuating the life of the snope and spread misinformation throughout the internet for various reasons.
Spotting snopes is relatively easy in most cases if a post is looked at critically. The problem is that snopes are normally designed to cloud one’s judgment with emotion. They will play on your beliefs, passions, political ideology, fears, and of course ignorance. The hope is that you, the reader, will be so overcome with the need to “share” the snope that you will not question the authenticity or fact check the snope. You need to vigilant of this. The fact is that every snope has one dead giveaway which identifies it for what it is. That is the request for you to somehow share it with your friends and for them to in turn share it with theirs.
Are snopes always false? No! How do you know which are true or false? Glad you asked! There is this nifty website available online called Snopes.Com which has a vast repository of snopes and actually critically analyzes them for factual content. Otherwise, another great site is a little known search engine called Google (maybe you’ve heard of it). Believe it or not, not everything you read on the internet is true, no matter how much you may want it to be or it may agree with your sensibilities. A great tip is to simply key the word “snope” and the first five or 6 words of the snope you are analyzing into a Google search. This will expose the truth very quickly in most cases.
If a snope is true is it okay to share it? NO! We all have the internet. We all have access to Reddit, Twitter, Google, Facebook, etc, etc. Even “true” snopes are seldom fully true or represent a full picture of the represented issue. If you read a snope, have fact checked it to be true, and really feel the need to pass on the information, find a reliable website supporting the idea or sharing the full story and post the link to the reliable information. Don’t post a short anecdote begging me to share it. It is bloody irritating because now I have to go through all the fact check work I just recommended to you.
So what do you do if one of your contacts gets into the habit of posting snopes? The answer is education! Education through on-line embarrassment I find is the best method to bestow “street smarts” upon a “snoper”. Simply search out the snope using the above tools and post a reply with a link demonstrating that what the person has posted is in fact a snope. Snopers may post true snopes from time to time but the vast majority are complete garbage. After a few embarrassments at your hands they will usually start fact checking before they post to avoid your inevitable reply. Or they will sever contact with you. Either way, PROBLEM SOLVED!
Please repost this to your timeline, if you have the guts, or something bad will happen in the next 48 hours! Just kidding lol!
See you out there!
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