Can Nessie survive the Internet ?

In the good old days, it would take weeks -- or even months -- to hear about a tsunami washing a dead mermaid ashore. Now we have the photos in our computer's inbox in mere hours. Yes, it's a whole new world for urban legends. Before there was an Internet, or even paper and pen, there were legends and myths. They served as campfire entertainment, passing between friends and generations without much thought as to whether they were true. Sometimes there was a lesson; sometimes it was just a good yarn. But there was always a big, unexplainable mystery, and the fun and wonder of telling an age-old story. Now, in an instantaneous society, everything has changed. Click and it's gone Modern technology can debunk stories that used to be able to travel around the world via word-of-mouth for years. Now, flying saucers become balloons. Bigfoot becomes a superimposed gorilla. Mermaids become papier-mache collections of animal parts. The flip side of that is the Internet is becoming a light-speed-traveling conduit for any crazy tale someone wants to make up.

Technology allows us to make the balloon back into a UFO. As one urban legend gets quashed, several new ones pop up. "The speed by which these legends are transported is ridiculously fast," says April Masini, the author of Web site AskApril.com, an advice and information site that deals with everything from urban legends to relationship advice. "This means more legends, more often. It also means that legends get quashed more easily and more quickly; in fact, there are even Web sites set up to let people know what myths are circulating and what truths are legend."

View: Full Article Source: Contra Costa Times