I Want to Believe

There's a lot of crazy stuff on Facebook, and much of it is wrong. The same is true of the internet generally, of course. And aside from factually inaccurate information you can find dark things in the internet's so-called dark corners. Like, say, a cannibalism forum.

Facebook, though, is much more accessible than a cannibalism forum, and thankfully more widely popular. But there is a phenomenon of passing along bogus information, whether because of political or religious motivations, or a general lack of skepticism or understanding.

My favorite that I've seen recently is the warning that Obamacare will require us all to have the Mark of the Beast implanted in our forearms. Some key points:

"The US Senate has passed the Obama Health Care' bill into law. The implementation would commence on 23/03/2013. This bill would require all Americans to be implanted with a Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) chip in order to access medical care. The device will be implanted on the forehead or on the arm. This is to fulfil the prophesy in the Book of Revelation 13:15-18 concerning the MARK OF THE BEAST!
[...]
(1) Why is the chip being implanted exactly where the Bible says it would be. Why on the hand and forehead. Why not anywhere else?(2) Why is it being connected to your bank account? Remember the Bible says you won't be able to buyor sell without the mark. And guess what! The chip is connected to your financial details."

I think I know the answers to those questions. 

Hoaxes are nothing new, and I know much of this is passed around because it's funny. It is likely that in many cases these posts are the work of spammers, who know the kind of content that will attract attention and use it to their financial advantage. Misinformation can be destructive though, especially in an environment where the only arbiters of veracity are the trusted friends and family who pass it along.

More destructive than belief that the President is Satan, I think, is the development of a culture where all information is dismissed as maybe true and maybe not. A healthy skepticism about what we get from media is, well, healthy, but a world in which Facebook hoaxes in a newsfeed are given as much consideration as journalism posts is troubling. After all, some things actually are true.