Mac Rumors Feed More Mac Rumors
April 6th, 2009I remember a silly demonstration on an old TV talk show. In that segment, one person told a joke and that person, in turn, would repeat the joke to someone else. After going through several generations of this behavior, the story that emerged from the final person in this group had little or no resemblance to the original. It was, in fact, hardly a joke at all.
Indeed, it’s also true that a rumor or gossip spread verbally is apt to lose quite a bit in the translation as it passes from one source to the next. Thank heavens we have the Internet, where we can instantly link to the original story, true or otherwise, before we amplify upon it.
What ends up happening, of course, is that one rumor can buttress another rumor, even though everyone is simply pointing back to the same source. At least the information is transmitted accurately; well most of the time anyway. The problem is that you look at the story and come to believe that it has substance, because so many sites are talking about it. At the end of the day, it’s just many sites repeating the same story and rarely with any amplification or confirmation.
