Social Netting Service, a Pair of Powerful Wings of Rumors

Social Netting Service, a Pair of Powerful Wings of Rumors
"Because of the catastrophic earthquake in Fukeshima, Japan, the air and the ocean have been polluted by radioactive element. Hurry up! Store as much as salt you can now! Or you will have no clean salt any more! And the element idomine in salt can protect you from radiation!"
"Jin Yong, the presiding genius of fiction writing, has died from mesencephalitis in the Saint Maria Hospital in Hong Kong, at 19:07, 6th December ,2010."
"A group of AIDS patients from Xinjiang are taking action to spread HIV by dropping their blood into food. Take care when you go out !"
I bet you have ever seen the content above at many social netting service (SNS) websites, such as Sina Micro Blog, QQ Zone and Renren, and maybe you have ever transmitted them or shared them with your fans, even joined the team to snatch salt in supermarket, to mourn for Jin Yong, to avoid people from Xinjiang like to avoid plague.You know they are foolish rumors now. But at that time, you could not persuade yourself to ignore them, because they rushed to you as angry flood,flushing the cybersphere in just a minute. That is the power of rumors. Mark Twain once said"A lie can travel half you way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes". The Internet has equipped rumors with ice-skating shoes, and the SNS endows them with strong wings.
To define it concisely, a rumor refers to a piece of fake news, containing some facts or not at all. According to a academic of communication in Renmin University of China, there are three kinds of rumors, and they are named after colors: black rumors, pink rumors and white rumors. Black rumors are schemed deliberately for detraction, attack or profits. For instance, an American boy induced people to pursue a stock by spreading a rumor, and got tremendous proceeds. Pink rumors describe people's hopes as reality, such as the date when train tickets will be sold, or a folk prescription that can cure a serious disease. The softest are white rumors, which are designed as practical jokes, or for entertainment. A rumor like "Transmit this mail to over 20 people, you will be entitled to be a membership."belongs to this catalogue.
We live in an era when the new medium are blooming, especially those relying on the Internet. And the SNS has jumped to the top of the list named "the channels from which we get information". With such a huge number of subscribers, rumors can exploit their destructiveness to the full. When rumors travel, a large amount of information of inferior quality will pollute the cyberspace, leading to the consequence that people cannot build up confidence to Internet. What's more, the black rumors, with the most destructive ability, will cause anarchy, bringing about threat against the economic development, public benefit, even social security. We have experienced that a small packet of salt can be the fuse of social chaos.
In order to break rumor's wings, we need to analyze how it get them. In spite of the high spread speed of the Internet, I find something concerning SNS only.
First, before the appearance of SNS, only traditional medium have access to spread information. Usually, they are of authority and under the supervision of government. Every word in the news must be checked carefully. However, with the bloom of SNS, every individual can play the role of media. Unfortunately, individual medium are not under the supervision of government. What's more, the screens before them become the solid protection, separating the cyberspace and the reality. Therefore, without the restriction of law in reality, SNS are shot through with fake news and we are bombarded with them.
Second, the subscribers of SNS are usually the young, without the ability to judge and criticize the information wisely. They tend to echo the views of others, with the absence of meditating independently. Therefore, they begin to accept passively, and forget to leave a question mark in their minds. The rumor about Jin Yong's death can illustrate it convincingly: the Saint Maria Hospital, mentioned in the rumor, is imaginary. You can not find the hospital in Hong Kong. But many of them did not notice it. They just paid attention to the so-called accurate time of death.
Third, the traditional medium of authority and government have not taken full advantage of SNS. Why people tend to believe those information disclosed by individuals? Sometimes they are innocent, because they cannot get satisfying information from authorities. And the responses and actions of government against rumors are always lagged behind. Since we can not catch the throat of rumors when they are in the cradle, we should smash them as soon as they take off, and government can be a pair of strongest hands to twist rumors' winds.
As university students, we should join the team to smash rumors ,acting as Sheldon ,the geek in the TV series Big Bang Theory. Always be doubtful about those rhetorical words and try to find scientific proofs if we believe they are truths. Or we can choose to be a rumor muller, like those geeks in Guokr. At least, we can stop clicking the "share" or "send" buttons that may cheer rumors up.
There is a Chinese saying that rumors cannot find credence with a wise person. Be wise ,not idiotic.

又忘记登陆了。。。唉~~~~可怜的作文又是无名游客发的。。。