My God! How many myths do we encounter every day? The myths surrounding food, behavior, animals, and even science and technology. This applies to the internet as well.
Every day, we hear myths about how the internet harms our privacy or security, and often, people tend to believe them. It turns out we can also be just like these people sometimes.
Let's take a look at the truth behind seven famous internet myths and see how many of them seem genuine to you as well.
1. Your ISP Is a Threat to Your Privacy
Many individuals think their internet service provider (ISP) spies on them and is a threat to their privacy. Truth be told, your ISP knows a lot about what you do, but it can't afford to invade your privacy. Although your ISP can track your activity, it doesn't have enough resources to store all that information about the users they provide services to.
In addition, every internet service provider has a set of rules to follow, and whatever they're tracking, you would have permitted them to do so when you signed up for their service. However, your internet service provider can undoubtedly track your activities if it desires.
Because of this, it is essential to select a reliable ISP, especially if you are running a large company and do not want to put so much sensitive data at risk. If you use the internet only for basic surfing and watching Netflix movies, you don't have to worry about anything.
2. Working Online Is a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme
Have you ever seen those ads where someone becomes a millionaire overnight? Some individuals can get their hands on a golden egg, but not everyone will. If the quick-rich trick worked for your neighbor living next door, it wouldn't necessarily work for you.
It is a common misconception that people get rich online in a matter of weeks, but this is not true. All things take time and effort at the same time. Cryptocurrency or other quick-rich schemes are not reliable at all. Instead of getting rich, you might lose everything you have.
Never fall into the trap of fake gurus selling quick-rich schemes—they are nothing more than a scam. Despite receiving the right tricks, you may still fail.
Instead of falling for those traps, take advantage of trusted platforms like Udemy, Skillshare, Masterclass, and others to gain knowledge. Learn a new skill, spend some time practicing it, and see how your world changes.
As with any offline business, an online business requires the same skills, effort, investment, and dedication. There is nothing like "Working Online is a Quick Rich Scheme."
3. You Cannot Trust Anything You Read on the Internet
The internet is filled with conspiracies, rumors, and incomplete information. There is no doubt that the internet is full of wrong information, but there are thousands of sources that provide reliable information.
In the past few years, security and verification were not strictly enforced, but these days, social media websites and big giants like Google and Amazon are pretty good at filtering the right information and delivering it to you.
You'll find thousands of verified social media pages, websites, and Facebook accounts that share reliable, authentic information. The bottom line is that you can't trust a few unreliable sources on the web, but not all.
4. Hackers Only Target Wealthy People
Who says hackers are always seeking wealth? Theft of money can be one reason for someone to hack your accounts; however, there can also be other reasons. It could be someone hacking your personal data out of revenge, to harass you, or just to steal some information.
When it comes to wealth, they usually don't discriminate between rich and poor. As a matter of fact, they target people who have limited knowledge of tech and can be tricked easily, regardless of their financial status. According to studies, hackers tend to target the unaware segment of the population more than the wealthy ones.
Before hacking their computer, they do their best to find their vulnerabilities after carefully analyzing how intelligent their target is. For hackers, the older generation is their favorite target because they are more susceptible to their scams.
Therefore, everyone is at risk of being hacked at some point, whether they are considered rich or not.
5. Incognito Mode Keeps You Protected
Everyone believes that using incognito mode keeps you safe. In reality, this is not the case. Incognito mode helps you protect your privacy by deleting your history so others can't see what you're doing on your device. However, your browser, your ISP provider, and even the website you're visiting can still track your activity.
Therefore, by using incognito, you only restrict your device's ability to know what you're doing. Additionally, while using incognito mode, you are still exposed to viruses and malware that could be bugging you on specific sites.
6. Internet Accelerator Apps Always Work
Many people believe that having internet accelerator software will improve their internet performance. To some extent, this is true. Internet accelerator software indeed helps maintain a stable connection with your router by fixing throttled speed issues, stabling the bandwidth, and other connectivity problems.
However, if your connection is very slow, having internet booster software will not help much. If that's the case, you'll only have the option of changing your internet service provider to get faster internet.
7. Stopping Kids' Internet Use Keeps Them Safe
Limiting kids' internet access does not ensure their safety. Essentially, it robs them of hundreds of opportunities that could have helped them in their education, personality development, and more.
Instead of restricting your kids' internet usage, teach them how to distinguish between right and wrong, and you will have long-lasting results and a more significant impact on their lives. By doing this, you won't have to monitor what your kid is doing online.
Don't listen to this myth, and don't completely eliminate children's access to the internet. Make intelligent decisions for yourself and your children.
Know the Reality of the Widely Accepted Internet Myths
Since the beginning of time, myths have been a part of human culture. What matters is that you do not believe them. There are a lot of downsides to letting myths survive, so you should do your best to debunk as many myths as you can and get the actual facts.