Dot’ Dish #9: Quick Myth Busters

By Dorothy Cook

I don’t like to think of myself as gullible, but I’m not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, especially before I’ve had a cup (or three) of coffee in the morning. As I was looking for a topic to write about today, I came across a picture of a kid holding a sandwich on the side of a swimming pool. A vivid memory of being told, “Wait 20 minutes after you eat to go back in the water or you’ll get a cramp and drown” flashed through my mind. Then I got to thinking (I do that sometimes), “Is that true?”. It’s not.

Now, you get to go down the rabbit hole of finding out what 5 most common myths people believe that are totally not true. And I’ll rate them because that’s always fun (0 being “I can’t believe anyone actually believes this”, and 10 being, “This is a very valid myth and if I didn’t know any better I would believe this”). 

1. Let’s start with the food and swimming.

While it is true that your body requires more blood to digest food, it doesn’t need nearly enough to take such a significant amount of blood away from the rest of your body that you’ll cramp. 7/10 myth because 8 year old me was terrified to swim after I ate, and it gives parents the chance to re-apply sunscreen to their kiddos.

2. You swallow around eight spiders a year while you sleep.

First off, ew. I like to remind myself that Charlotte is more scared of me that I am of her and so I never really believed this myth. Spiders actually don’t like the vibrations given off by humans (they sense our bad vibes), and so a spider crawling on you on purpose in the first place is very unlikely. And for them to crawl into your mouth is even more unlikely, especially if you snore. While it is possible for this to happen, it probably won’t. 3/10 myth because the people who are terrified of spiders will still probably believe it. 

3. The earth is flat.

0/10 myth. I don’t feel like I need to explain myself here. 

4. Going outside in the cold with wet hair will make you sick.

As someone with a horrible immune system anyways, I NEVER went outside in the cold with wet hair. There was no way I was taking that chance and to be honest, it kind of made sense. Now that I’m thinking about it, I have no idea why I thought it made sense. In reality, colds are caused by viruses and I really don’t think they care whether your hair is dry or wet.8/10 myth because I believed it. 

5. Every living thing dies.

Guys, the ocean is a scary place. Apparently, there’s this jelly fish called the Turritopsis dohrnii that just turns back into a juvenile when it gets old. This thing is biologically immortal. I didn’t even know that “every living thing dies” was a myth! 10/10 very disturbing myth. If you don’t believe me, ask google yourself (warning: it’s kind of a scary jelly fish). 

Now that you know the truth behind these common myths, consider yourself .00000001% smarter. You’re welcome.