I spent three days at the continuation high school last week. On two of those days, two different students informed me of this mermaid thing.
"It was a documentary on the Discovery Channel."
Now that I think about it, I'm sure that this came up other times as well, but I hadn't been in a position to ask follow up questions. These days, however, I could.
The first time we were in a computer class. The student explained that he had seen it on Facebook. Someone posted a link. There were pictures. There was video. Mermaids actually exist.
I was dubious. Students also believe in the Illuminati. In fact, I think that was one of the arguments against that I used. And of course I was informed that I was mistaken--the Illuminati are real.
Sure they are.
I believe a lot of things that most people would call crazy. (I don't blast them on the blog all that often.) But I draw the line at mythical creatures. Bigfoot? The Loch Ness Monster? Hoaxes. Mermaids? Whatever they had seen had to be fake.
Right?
The second time it came up was the next day in the journalism class (the class that writes the school paper). They were doing current events. The current events they discussed were real news events, but somehow the conversation got sidetracked into the mermaid thing.
One girl swore to everyone that she had seen the Discovery Channel documentary, and that mermaids really do exist.
Now, I'm still pretty sure that this isn't real. But now I need to do some research. Because this myth has gone viral, at least amongst the students at the continuation high school, and I need to find out what's behind it.
Turns out, my mother had seen the same doc. With my nephew. But it wasn't a documentary. It was more of a mockumentary. A quick Internet search, and I found what it is everyone has been talking about.
It was on Animal Planet, not the Discovery Channel.
- From Business Insider.
- And more of an explanation as to the phenomenon of the "doc".
- Some of the videos via Animal Planet's website.
- And the disclaimer that the continuation high school students seem to have missed.
It's War of the Worlds all over again. For a new generation.
I'm not sure if it's as much "War of the Worlds" as it is "not doing research". It seems to be prevalent in the internet age.
ReplyDeleteCan you hear the sigh I'm giving? It's pretty big.
C'mon! You mean to tell me that Arielle is not REAL! Damn it! You could have said "SPOILER ALERT" in your heading!! ;)
ReplyDeleteLOL. This totally gets me--people read or see something, and suddenly it's the 100% truth. Okay, that's it. I'm starting a myth. The living cheese man. That's right. It's going to be huge, and then everyone will bring me their excess cheese to appease the beast. ;)
ReplyDeleteSounds like some of your kids are are as gullible as I am - once I was almost convinced that jackalopes were real - almost.
ReplyDelete