On the gossip blog gawk I found a story that made me think about so-called social networks, especially Twitter. According to that post, yesterday was a great noise in the twitter as a result of the news that Patrick Swayze had died. Swayze who is famous for films like Dirty Dancing (Forbidden Dance) and Ghost (The shadow of love), waging a battle against pancreatic cancer that afflicts.
Basto someone misinterpreted a radio commentary, to send a Tweet announcing the death of Swayze automatically without anyone verify that the news is true or not, thousands of users have begun to echo the same so that the media became aware of the alleged death of Swayze by Twitter, but since no one would give a news source making “Twitter” contacted the spokesperson for the actor only to be told that Swayze was alive.
This reminds me of what happens to a herd of sheep, just a panic about something so insignificant as a leaf falls, the entire herd to start a race without respect. In sheep behavior is instinctive and necessary for survival, while the group did not attack wolves if they are dispersed in a fall victim predator running away.
Twitter is allowing this type of herd behavior is transferred to the web, but here the motivation is another. The idea of being popular and interesting to tell long before another, it will adopt a behavior which replaces the immediate right. If adding to this that would be almost impossible to trace back who started all the uproar, we have a situation where any rumor can reach sufficiently credible status of fact by popular vote. After commenting on a Tweet that said something other, or the Tweet replicate within our own social network is a vote endorsing the content.
To quote an old saying, “Although the monkey dresses in silk, mona stays.” Applies very well to this case, no matter how many gadgets are purchased or when “geek” is intended to be a fool with a computer becomes smarter, only proving that this is a fool with enough money.