Urban Legends

Overview We've all heard the story of the friend of a friend who awoke one morning to find her apartment covered in thousands of spiders, ostensibly because the cactus plant she brought home from Mexico was infested with spider eggs. Or how about the one about the young boy dying of cancer who wanted postcards sent to his home to cheer him up? These and other urban legends pre-date the Internet by many years, spread through oral tradition, newspapers, and now e-mail and Web sites. These stories are presented as the truth but they are often completely fictitious. Now, armed with the Internet, urban legends are able to spread worldwide at an astounding speed. A surprisingly large amount of urban legend resources exist online, ranging from simple descriptions to serious debunking guides.

Urban Legend Resources There are two camps or “schools of thought” when it comes to urban legends. One camp is interested in analyzing and discussing urban legends. They find them a source of amusement and may also want to expose urban legends or try to discover what they imply about our culture. The other camp seems offended by the very presence of urban legends on our digital landscape. Most of us are somewhere in between these two camps. Regardless of your point of view, HowStuffWorks.com provides an excellent unbiased article about how and why urban legends are started, how they spread, and why people are compelled to pass them on. One of today's most popular urban legend Web sites is www.snopes.com where you can search through their many categorized topics, ranging from automobiles to weddings. Other good urban legend resources, such as urbanlegendsonline.com, or the article “What are Urban Legends: Fact, Fiction, and Folklore”, can be found on the Internet. A simple keyword search using “urban legend” will produce many results. Visit any of the following Web sites for further information about Internet hoaxes and urban legends. 

• dmoz.org/Society/Folklore/Literature/Urban_Legends
• urbanlegends.about.com/mbody.htm
• vmyths.com/hoax.cfm

Urban Legend Debunking Guides Although most urban legends and Internet hoaxes are not meant to cause harm, they are the intentional distribution of misinformation. How can you distinguish real information from myths and lies? Online urban legend debunking guides can help you. Visit either netsquirrel.com/combatkit or www.truthorfiction.com to access debunking guides. The Web page www.scambusters.org/legends.html also offers a great deal of information about “busting” urban legends. In fact, the entire ScamBusters.org site is dedicated to educating the public about common scams, hoaxes, and myths. 

Additional Links Additional information about urban legends and Internet hoaxes can be found on this Yahoo.com Directory page. Also be sure to visit the site www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/hoaxes to search their extensive index of hoaxes, scams, and urban legends.