Urban Legends on the Web Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Papers

urban Legends on the WebUrban legends are winning to almost everyone, and it would follow that in that respect 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 sock which ones to believe? A good research site will have detailed development 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 flow 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, on that point 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 fiction 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 evermore 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. all(prenominal) individual with a... ...good research tool, but it needs some more concrete evidence. After all, how earth-closet we believe that the author is correct without proof? That is as bats as believing an urban legend just because yo ur brothers girlfriends 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 add 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.