Have you heard the rumour that Twitter is shutting down because of abuse problems? It’s not.
Likewise, Facebook will NOT be charging from the Summer of 2016 (if Summer ever arrives around here)
As humans we love rumours and we love to propagate them, particularly alarming ones. There are situations where our love for the alarming causes false rumours spread faster than the facts.
Social media allows us to spread these rumours at a pace unimaginable in the past. But there’s more to it than that, the nature of social media makes these rumours highly believable and amplifies the rate of propagation.
People spread rumours for a reason, but there doesn’t seem to be too much consensus on what these reasons are. The list that made the most sense to me was this one:
- People Spread Rumours When There’s Uncertainty
- People Spread Rumours When They Feel Anxiety
- People Spread Rumours When the Information is Important
- People Spread Rumours When They Believe the Information
- People Spread Rumours When it Helps Their Self-Image
- People Spread Rumours When it Helps Their Social Status
From Social Psych Online.
Graham Chastney 