i think one of the best things my folklore major did for me was to teach me the signatures of urban legends and the environments in which they flourish. it's a great skill to have in general, but especially right now

panic is a major source of fuel for misinformation and urban legends, unsurprisingly so. people want to protect themselves and their loved ones. and right now, a lot of the fear is reasonable, and useful information is scarce. so people fill in the gaps as a way to make sense

but this also means a lot of unverified info gets circulated, often through social media and text messages/emails. and it all seems reasonable, because the status quo is so interrupted and so little is known for certain. but spotting misinformation is important

over the past week or so i've seen posts going around about a nationally imposed lockdown enforced by the national guard (with some variation on the specifics)

often, the posts (or texts) cite a friend-of-a-friend (foaf) who works at homeland security or in the govt

the people the information supposedly come from are typically a few degrees removed but know someone you know. but the foaf source is a pretty classic hallmark of an urban legend or misinformation. it feels personal but it can't be verified

and the same structure tends to get repeated. soon, everyone and their mother has a friend in homeland (or in the ER where richard gere went back in the 90s, if you know you know)

we're all trying to help each other out here and protect the people we care about. there's no shame in accidentally spreading misinformation, it happens to all of us. we're all scared right now, so it's more important than ever to make sure when know what's actually true

if you read something, especially on social media, check the source. try to verify through multiple sources. if someone tells you something personally, do a quick google search and see if you can find an official source for it

stay informed, but stay skeptical