Research Paper on Urban Legend or Myth || Mythology Assignment Helpers

Reaction paper on a researched urban legend or myth that you have experienced

The Chain Letter Legend

Introduction 

Myths and lends have been a better part of many people growing up. Most of the things and phenomena that existed appeared to be answered (reasoned out) by a myth or legend in that particular society. Despite being used as the source of reasoning for most of these activities, there has never been someone to confirm these findings.  There are people who still hold onto them.  One of the urban myths that were experienced during the growing up stage was the “The Chain Letter” legend. The paper is a reaction to this legend by not only looking at its real applicability today but also in the different ways it has been “adopted.”

The “Chain Letter” legend is a relatively modern legend that most people have interacted with it as they are using their social media platform.  According to this myth, one is supposed to continue a chain of letter sending to a person or persons so that they can get different forms of rewards. According to this myth, the letter carries an essential message that the first generator wants to be communicated to as many people as possible (Rinehart, p. 1). The failure to send the letter to the identified number of respondents would end up exposing themselves to some threat (Collins, p.1).

Assessing the logic behind this myth is that it uses terror and threats to people that are very vulnerable to such threats. People that fall for such are those that believe in superstition, the illiterate, young children and the elderly. This is because these groups of people are not well informed are more concerned with what can happen to them and their loved ones. Another feature of this myth is that it makes global threats that can be experienced by any other person. Such threats include “bad lack,” “bad thing happens to a loved one,” “failure in school or at work” and “death.” From the list of the threats made, almost every person can experience this and once one receives they will relate to anything happening to them and therefore responding to it. The last feature that makes the myth common is the fact that it has an ultimatum. In most cases, one is directed to send the message to a given number of people. With such, one will send to the given number and be done with it.

Making a close observation in the current system, the myth is still being used in different capacities. One of the areas in which the legend is applicable in the modern day is on the viral marketing strategy. Companies have adopted the approach of wanting their potential customers to send a message about the product to a given number of people so that they can get gifts and presents. The people are given a fixed number of people they should send the message to and progress towards getting gift hampers, free items or even trips. To the business, the sending of the message to many people allows the company to increase its market base.

All in all, the “Chain Letter” myth remains to be a myth having no consequences to any person. The use of threats and superstition has been used to target specific people. However, the idea of chain letters is very useful for marketing. The myth is still prevalent in social media and those believing in these superstitions will fall victims to it.

References

Collins, Paul. “You Must Forward This Story to Five Friends: The curious history of chain letters.” Slate Home Page. (2010). Retrieved from: https://slate.com/culture/2010/10/the-curious-history-of-chain-letters.html

Rinehart, Karen. “Urban Legends and Chain Letters.” Catholic Exchange. Retrieved from: https://catholicexchange.com/urban-legends-and-chain-letters