Check It Out

If you're coming to this page from Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, MySpace (WHAT YEAR IS IT?!), Twitter or any other social media outlet, my legal team (me) wishes to inform you that this site has not been approved by the FDA and any claims, promises, jokes or vague references are representative of the views of the paid volunteer staff (me). Any misrepresentation of information or hurt feeling(s) resulting from said views should be addressed to my PR representative (also me) or complaint department (you should be able to figure out who that is by now).

Now that we have the legal mumbo-jumbo (is there any other kind of legal?) out of the way, let's get on with the post.

Speaking of Social Media legal mumbo jumbo, I've been seeing a lot of posts lately about claiming individual rights and your Facebook posts being made public and if you post a notice on your timeline you'll be reincarnated as one of Rebecka Hathaway's dogs (you should be so lucky) and win a million dollars.

Come on, people.

Really?

The internet has given us the ability to accept completely false information faster than ever before. ~ Dee Hathaway

As I sat shaking my head (or SMH, just in case you need me to speak internetese) about how gullible we are as a species (that species being internetus accessious), I started thinking about how all this misinformation got started

I had a PR teacher in High School... her name was Miss Information. ~Nolan Straabe

and I came up with a few bits of information.

A. By moving to Seattle, I actually moved myself farther away from penguins and
2. this whole "getting it completely wrong" thing is nothing new.

Sorry, older generation, we can't blame this one on the young'uns. Not entirely.

The first people to master the art of getting stuff wrong were those who handed down through the generations "lore" or "the story of our peoples".  My cat sometimes still sings their songs.  I'm guessing that some of that cave writing and hyrogplyhics hyroflypics hieroglyphics(wow, had to look that one up!) were actually saying "click like, then share, and see what happens!  It's amazing!!"

Sidebar; do you know what happens?

NOTHING!

Just to test that out, like this post and leave a comment... you'll be amazed at what happens!!!

Those moved right along to become superstition.  You know, cross the path of a black cat on Friday the 13th while walking on a ladder and your mirror will break for 7 years.  These are accepted pretty much worldwide, evidenced by the lack of a 13th floor in hotels and the extremely low adoption rate of 7 year old black cats. (smh)

Fast forward to something a little more modern and you'll find the "old wives' tales", "cowboy tales" and "The National Enquirer".  Same kind of stuff.  Oh! And medicine.  What's with all the leeches and bleeding???

Moving into the modern era of getting stuff wrong (so glad the leeches are gone... they are, right?  RIGHT???) we have all the interwebs to show us stuff that just ain't right.  Like the grammar in that last sentence.

I love modern technology. It's given me the opportunity to earn a pretty good living and keeps me in touch with family and friends across thousands of miles and too many years.  And it's pretty much responsible for you being here now, M.I.Right?  And it really is a modern miracle that we have access to pretty much any information we want with the push of a button (i.e. the enter key).  But easy access to good information is also easy access to bad information.

The problem with quotes found on the internet is that they're not always accurate." ~Abraham Lincoln

There are a couple of modern misperceptions that I want to discuss with (write to) you here.  Check it out.

First, when man first stepped on the moon, the first speech on the moon to be quoted wrong was "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".  What was actually said was "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind".  Come on.  That makes so much more sense.

The second one was "Money is the root of all evil".  I'm fully convinced (for purposes of this post) that that sentence is responsible for me not having any money.  Who wants to have the root of all evil??? (let's leave our political views out of this).  The actual phrase is "The love of money is the root of all evil".  Kinda changes things, doesn't it??  We can have money and not be evil as long as the desire to have the money is not what drives us.  Okay money... we can just be friends.  Nothing says that the friendship of money is the root of all evil.  (I'm talking to you, MegaMillions!)

So the bottom line (finally!) is, I urge you, my faithful reader(s), to not just take what you're told at face value.  The internet can be a tool for good, not just for kitten videos and smoothie recipes.  Save us all (and especially me) from me having to go to snopes and look stuff up... check it out for yourself.  And if someone tells you that you need to copy/paste something in order to make something happen, you can be sure that nothing will happen when you do. Be original. Be authentic. Be careful. Be you.

If you really need something you can count on, just come on over here to the ol' DeeBlog, I promise not to steer you wrong, give you up, let you down or desert you (I might, however, dessert you). I'm here for you, and that's a true story that will never change. My research assistant (me again) can vouch for that! 🙂