Rumours can be Costly

This is the article that fronted the "Recruit" section of the Straits Times this morning.

It a way, the word "Rumour" comes with a negative connotation. Normally it's bad... well, that's also the message that article sends across! It's damaging and destructive! Ah! It's so dangerous!

It influences one's thinking as well as others and could snowball to create an impact! just because of some "tweak" in truth! As the article pointed out, this "tweak" is not necessary caused by 'wrong' info, but it could due to wrong emphasis (due to some bias perception).

As mentioned in the first paragraph, "rumours constitute a feature of any social environment". Hahah... it sounds as if no social environment is spared from it! Why this 'devil' exists? In fact, any environment that is first created is "pure" (as it's empty). So, believe it's the 'devil' that's hidden in the entities that made up this environment. That's people! So, we are the ones who brought this 'devil' with us? Of course, it needs two hands to make a clap!

• The 'devil' could not act till there's another 'devil' around or if there's another entity that the 'devil' thinks can influence!
• Of course, if these 2 'devils' are dormant... then nothing happens lor...

In fact, this belief challenges who Confucius said, "人之初，性本善" (Yahoo! Babel Fish: at the beginning of the human, the nature is originally friendly). If one's nature is friendly or harmless... then where the evil comes from? Chim!!!

The next paragraph explained that rumours are essentially unsubstantiated and incomplete information passed by word of mouth and subject to distortion. Oh yes, in this high-tech world, it's not only by a word of mouth, but visuals and media made it deceivingly believable! Scary, isn't it? Mankind is really intelligent!!! Some rumours turn into legends! (eg. the UFOs related stories!)

To help curb this problem (see, we can't possibly prevent 'cos we can't control what others do!), chinese have a saying, "谣言止于智者" (Yahoo! Babel Fish: The rumor stops in the wise). That's where we have to exercise our wisdom and practise what is right (our righteousness and integrity!). Of course, it's important that we are able receive the inputs objectively and filter it off.

As mentioned in the later part of the article, "people are more inclined to believe in a rumour in terms of its content and if it is communicated by someone whom they perceive as being credible". So, is it about information literacy? Could one decifer what's true from the mess of info available out there? Well, today, we still have teachers who would just lift anything from the internet and citing it as if it's true (without checking the reliability of the source)! That's dangerous!

Circulating rumours is definitely damaging to oneself and the others (including the organisation) - it also leads to the lack of trust among people and often second guess the genuine intent of things! That's disastrous... and I think, worst... it's self-destruction - emotionally...