It’s an inspiring story that proves that amazing things can happen.
When single mother Linda Roscoe was told her 5-year-old daughter, Emily, had a brain tumor and needed surgery, she had just been laid off and was without insurance. With no family or friends able to help, Linda didn’t know who to turn to. Amazingly, a decorated soldier who had just returned from Afghanistan heard Linda’s story, and he knew he could help: His husband just so happened to be a neurosurgeon willing to do the operation for free.
Emily is now a healthy 6-year-old who likes riding her bike and playing with her friends, and you can either verify that this actually happened or share it right now and reap its immense social media capital.
Yes, you could slog through news sites looking for another source to corroborate this amazing story. But by then, one of your friends will probably have already posted this to Facebook, and he will be the one swimming in likes and comments instead of you. You can be the person who is always the first to share amazing stories like this one with your friends, or you can be the person who bumbles around the internet, looking to see if things are true or not.
Your call.
Did Emily really have a brain tumor? Did Linda really serendipitously meet a gay soldier who was married to a benevolent neurosurgeon? Do any of these people actually exist? It’s questions like these that will only slow you down and ensure that you won’t be the first to tweet or Facebook this amazing story about the triumph of the human spirit. This is going to absolutely kill on social media, and if you post it first it could be your story.
Someone you know is going to stop reading right here, post this to Facebook, and cash in on all the likes, shares, and comments this is sure to get. It’s decision time, pal. The clock is ticking.
If you’ve read this far down before sharing this, there is dwindling hope that one of your friends hasn’t posted it on social media while you’re too busy trying to make sure it actually happened. Maybe you still have time to be the first to share this on a lesser platform, like Blogspot or Pinterest, if you’re lucky. But if there is a lesson to be learned from Linda’s heartwarming tale of hope, it’s that checking the authenticity of inspiring stories you see on the internet only comes at a cost to you.
And let’s admit it: Whether or not it’s true, we’ll forget about all of this tomorrow and look at an inspiring photo of a three-legged army dog or a cop hugging a protester or something.
