Urban legends can be annoying and they can be fun, but they definitely point to things that concern us.  I get annoyed when I get emails from well-meaning friends telling me that people are slipping into people's cars at gas stations and then attacking them later. Or when they tell me that if I send on my email, Microsoft will give me money. I wish people would take a few minutes and put on their thinking caps...if you are getting a message about free money, criminal activity, or a sick child, please take a few moments and check out www.snopes.com and see if it is an urban legend before you pass it on and scare someone else or raise their hopes for an instant fortune or pull on their heartstrings and fill up their email box. 

Having said that, there are deeper things that we can learn from urban legends. Just like horror movies, urban legends point to what is worrying us as a society. If you look back over the decades of horror movies you will see clusters. Look at all the Godzilla/Mothra/other radioactive deformed monster movies that came out after WWII when everyone was absolutely terrified by the atomic bomb.  Look at the spate of serial killer type movies (Halloween, Friday the 13th, etc) that have come on screen as media brings us information of these real life horrors....urban legends are the same way. We get emails about Bill Gates sending us money because we all wish he would share a bit with us or that free money would appear in the mail. There are urban legends about rat pee on coke cans because we worry about the FDA and if inspections are getting done. The list goes on, 

So take a few minutes before you send a bizarre email (Paul Harvey really didn't do some of the 'rest of the story' stories that he gets credit for). Check it out on www.snopes.com. If you find the urban legend interesting, feel free to send it on, just add the disclaimer that it is a legend, but isn't it fascinating what it shows about our human psyche!? Your friends will appreciate the fact that they don't have to take the time to verify that it is an urban legend and instead, they can use their brain cells contemplating why this urban legend is popular. (The same ones they can use during commercials...just who do advertisers think watch this television show anyway!)