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What is a rumor? |
by Mya Kagan (whyzz writer) >> more about the author
Telephone!
A rumor is a piece of information whose truth or source is unknown. Rumors are known for spreading between people quickly and easily since they are easy to tell, but hard to prove! For example, if someone at school tells you that your teacher has a pet tiger named Fluffy, that would be a rumor. Rumors often start out with information that is true (“Our teacher has a pet”) which then get exaggerated and change into something false (“Our teacher has a pet tiger”).
A lot of the time, rumors contain hurtful information. Since it’s not a good idea to say mean things and since rumors are often not even true, it’s not a good idea to spread a rumor. If you hear something that sounds like a rumor, you don’t need to tell it to other people unless the information contains something hurtful or dangerous that a grown-up needs to know about.
Telephone!
Have you ever played the game “Telephone”? It’s a really good way of seeing how rumors spread and change so easily! Here’s how it works:
Get a group of at least 4-5 people, and have everyone sit together in a circle. The first player silently thinks up a silly sentence. For example, “My itchy shirt doesn’t know how to find the bologna.”
This first player whispers his or her silly sentence into the ear of the next player, who then whispers it to the third player, and so on. The last person to receive the silly sentence announces it to the room, so everyone can laugh at how much sillier it becomes in the end!
