With all the celebrities dropping like flies, rumors of other celebrities kicking the bucket are running rampant. CNN even had an article on it today:
After a string of real celebrity deaths last week, the Internet and online social networks killed a few more stars.
Despite what you may have read, Jeff Goldblum, Natalie Portman, George Clooney, Britney Spears, Harrison Ford and Rick Astley are alive.
It brought up a negative thinking point I like to tell people all the time especially when the media is involved: You don’t have to believe everything you hear!!
Too often, rumors are spreads as quickly as an STD on the “Rock of Love“. Just remember to use the 3 L’s:
Listen – It’s always good to hear what information is floating around out there. You don’t want to be on the outside looking in when something important goes down. At work, in your life, surprises can be fun or traumatic. If you can get hints or outright concrete evidence of something bad about to happen before it does, how helpful would that be?
Look Up – Once you hear something, you need to verify it. Multiple sources, independant verification, all things journalists are supposed to do before going to print, you should do as well before you believe it.
Learn – You can learn who is a valuable resource and who is not from the person spreading the rumors. If your friend Dave is always wrong about every rumor he spreads, you know he’s not someone to be routinely believed. If your buddy, Mark is always on the button about future events, when you hear something, he might be a great resource to verify info with.
But too many people are like Stephen Colbert (just not as funny) when it comes to rumors and they take everything as the truth, verifying be damned:
July 1, 2009 at 11:36 am |
I heard the entire news staff of CNN died…