I Feel Used!

Last week, some co-workers told me that this October was the first in 823 to have 5 full weekends. Having no reason to doubt who I view as intelligent colleagues, I thought to myself, “Wow, isn’t that interesting.” I didn’t give it much thought after that and seemingly heard it around a few other places, as well. So, as any person (especially in a profession so tuned into the “news”) tends to do, I proceeded to pass along the information to friends and family. I got through a few people in circle with no push back. However, when I relayed my interesting tidbit to a certain friend, he happily informed me that this was impossible!

Needless to say after a short conversation and little thought, it didn’t take much convincing at all for me to realize that my friend was right. A quick internet search confirmed that I had been duped by an internet experiment testing how easily we believe what we read on the internet and in my case (even more embarrassing) what our friends read on the internet. EGadds!

What a wake-up call. While I do feel foolish, this little experiment reminded me how easy it is to forget the pitfalls of the internet. We rely on it so heavily, and in the PR and marketing industry it often acts the end-all be-all resource. It is easy to forget that not all web is controlled by truthful sources like ourselves.