Why the Internet is a Just a Myth

The internet as powerful as it is, also has a double edge. Not only does the internet make the truth easy to find, it simultaneously hides that truth in a massive rollicking sea of myth. To characterize it another way think of it like this, "the truth" (of whatever is in question) is not known by all users at all times. Since all users don't know everything they are quite free, and often expected, to spout out half truths, myths, and political musings; this is usually dependent upon the group to which the user's chose to associate with online.

Now all of these small myths can and quite often do add up into larger myths, legends, or urban legends. The most famous example that I can think of is that of the "Rocket Car." It was that all too good (or too awful) to believe. Yet this example shows just what the accelerated telephonic nature of the internet can do to an otherwise innocuous or joking remark, some individual somewhere will see a kernel of truth whether it is there or not.

Weather or not there is indeed kernel of truth has become a bit of a cottage industry, where the stakes are high. It has even spawned a mainstream media "truth-testing" shows (MythBusters, Decoded et al). Such truth seeking entities also have found a place in the political sphere, rising up around the discredited mythos of the mainstream paper and publishing industry.

The problem grows beyond any one nation's mainstream. It is becoming more and more common for those who are not citizens of a country to have strong opinions on legislation in countries other then their own. There is understandably a large amount of truth about the functions and applications of laws that surely escape these commentators.

This mythic ignorance even extends to a nations own citizens. Ask any person on the street what the laws of their nation are and you will get very broad answers. These individuals have only limited knowledge of the specifics and thus substitute this knowledge gap with myth and story. And now the internet makes that myth easy to post spread and sell!  

The smaller myths grow out of individual to individual and individual to group discussions and they result in the growth of a conglomerated myth. This myth can be many things but above all it is a story that at its heart has no intrinsic truth. These myths can serve group leaders and group influencers very well.  These myths build upon on another and as we have seen they can result in such myths as the Rocket Car. 

The Conglomerated Myth is often co-opted by the leaders of a group and thus the group only needs marginal involvement from these leaders (think, Osama Bin Laden). At its heart, there is an idea that myth serves mainly to motive individuals, often for strictly political ends.

Here is a graphical representation of the two parallel processes. These two processes act on each other through the individual. In this representation we can see the cycle of these processes. Each individual's nature, off-line associates, and choices affects how much one might believe a myth over the truth or a portion of one to a portion of the another.

Truth and Myth are very real forces that play on any individual who logs onto the internet, just as they would in any regular society. The only thing that the two forces have in common is the fact that these forces act on the on individual at a distance. The Conversations and content online are only echoes of the larger forces at work on individuals in larger society.