Background
My extended family, of which I am the only avowed atheist, is spatially dispersed in India and abroad. So a few years back, one of my cousins took the initiative to create a Yahoo Egroup in which all descendents and spouses of descendents of my maternal grandparents are eligible to be members.
We have about 15 active members - the rest are too old to use a computer, too young, or participate very occasionally. The 15 active members consist of both males and females. The oldest active member is about 60 years old and the youngest about 30 years old. All 15 active members have at least completed a Bachelor's degree and have at least a working command of English. A majority have gone beyond a Bachelor's degree. Our common maternal granddad was a first generation college learner and completed an MA - so none of the 15 active members is a first generation college learner.
EGroup Emails
Most of the emails in the EGroup have to do with birthday and anniversary greetings.
The second set of emails are forwarded emails, usually of dubious value. Summary examples of such emails are given below.
1. Sanskrit is great for computer programming
2. Macaulay's 1935 minute sought to destroy Indian culture.
3. Please forward this email to 6 others and something good will happen to you.
4. Dates have awesome nutritional value.
5. English language is going to drop the alphabet Z on June 1st
My Response and Effect
I have responded bluntly to many of these emails. Yet it seems to have had no effect on members' proclivity to forward unverified emails. On most occasions, my response exposing these emails, is greeted by silence. If anything, I have likely become unpopular. :-) The loss of popularity does not bother me. What bothers me is that even members with degrees fail to change behavior.
Have other members faced similar issues?
How you have tackled them?
Any good suggestions?
Extracts
Extracts from some of my responses (not necessarily to the emails refered to above) follow:
(a) That email about Mars is a hoax which seems to have gained wide circulation presumably because recipients seem to be forwarding it to people on their email lists, without making an attempt to verify the email's assertions via independent sources.
Yes, Mars came close to the earth, but that was in August 2003 (two years ago). To the email's defence, it cleverly omits reference to a specific year. However, the reference to "as large as the moon to the naked eye" is a massive overstatement.
By all means, go ahead and watch the sky on August 27th. It should look beautiful, though not because Mars is going to be particularly close or look big.
....
(b) I smell hoax :-)
http://www.iamnotobese.com/drinking-wate...-water.php
Some (not a lot of) red wine may (or may not) help.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/red-wine/HB00089
...
(c ) I wager that it is a hoax. Why would UNESCO waste its time and resources on frivolous and highly subjective things like best national anthem?
Indians who verify before forwarding may feel proud that they engaged in the act of verification. What do Indians, and this includes me, whose contribution to the creation of the national anthem is zilch, have to feel proud about the anthem?
My extended family, of which I am the only avowed atheist, is spatially dispersed in India and abroad. So a few years back, one of my cousins took the initiative to create a Yahoo Egroup in which all descendents and spouses of descendents of my maternal grandparents are eligible to be members.
We have about 15 active members - the rest are too old to use a computer, too young, or participate very occasionally. The 15 active members consist of both males and females. The oldest active member is about 60 years old and the youngest about 30 years old. All 15 active members have at least completed a Bachelor's degree and have at least a working command of English. A majority have gone beyond a Bachelor's degree. Our common maternal granddad was a first generation college learner and completed an MA - so none of the 15 active members is a first generation college learner.
EGroup Emails
Most of the emails in the EGroup have to do with birthday and anniversary greetings.
The second set of emails are forwarded emails, usually of dubious value. Summary examples of such emails are given below.
1. Sanskrit is great for computer programming
2. Macaulay's 1935 minute sought to destroy Indian culture.
3. Please forward this email to 6 others and something good will happen to you.
4. Dates have awesome nutritional value.
5. English language is going to drop the alphabet Z on June 1st
My Response and Effect
I have responded bluntly to many of these emails. Yet it seems to have had no effect on members' proclivity to forward unverified emails. On most occasions, my response exposing these emails, is greeted by silence. If anything, I have likely become unpopular. :-) The loss of popularity does not bother me. What bothers me is that even members with degrees fail to change behavior.
Have other members faced similar issues?
How you have tackled them?
Any good suggestions?
Extracts
Extracts from some of my responses (not necessarily to the emails refered to above) follow:
(a) That email about Mars is a hoax which seems to have gained wide circulation presumably because recipients seem to be forwarding it to people on their email lists, without making an attempt to verify the email's assertions via independent sources.
Yes, Mars came close to the earth, but that was in August 2003 (two years ago). To the email's defence, it cleverly omits reference to a specific year. However, the reference to "as large as the moon to the naked eye" is a massive overstatement.
By all means, go ahead and watch the sky on August 27th. It should look beautiful, though not because Mars is going to be particularly close or look big.
....
(b) I smell hoax :-)
http://www.iamnotobese.com/drinking-wate...-water.php
Some (not a lot of) red wine may (or may not) help.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/red-wine/HB00089
...
(c ) I wager that it is a hoax. Why would UNESCO waste its time and resources on frivolous and highly subjective things like best national anthem?
Indians who verify before forwarding may feel proud that they engaged in the act of verification. What do Indians, and this includes me, whose contribution to the creation of the national anthem is zilch, have to feel proud about the anthem?