Fact-Checking

[wren.]

fact-checking

Hello fellow Iwakian!

Did you know that there's a holiday in April dedicated to fact-checking? Initially, it might seem like an absurd holiday, but ultimately, keeping yourself informed and thwarting the dangers of misinformation is crucial for progress, so maybe it does deserve a day of its own. In the spirit of this holiday, I thought it would be fun to discuss ideas that we once thought were fact but later found out were a bit (or incredibly!) wrong.

As an example, here are some funny common misconceptions people tend to have as children:
1. If you swallow a watermelon seed, a watermelon will grow inside your stomach.
2. The moon follows you when you're driving in a car.
3. If you sleep with one leg out of the blanket, a monster will grab it.

Additionally, check out these other April-related threads:
Take a Risk
Encouraging Your Fellow Writers
Earth Day

 

[Monbon]

My older brother had me believing that if you laid with an egg, it'd hatch into a chick eventually.

I only made the attempt once which led to my bed being covered in yolk and my mom being mad at me for being dumb. Either way, I never really tried it again cause I remember being sad about killing a baby chick. Didn't learn the truth until middle school or so.

Strangely it didn't stop me from eating eggs. Food>Feelings

 

[Dusk]

This isn't mine (I can't think of any at the moment, but I'll share them later if I do). I also find this particularly cute, so I'm going ahead and sharing.

My friend's mom used to think you could hear the stars twinkling at night. It wasn't until she was around ten that one of her friends told her the sound she thought was the stars was in fact crickets.