These stories often spread through in-person conversation but with the advent of quicker forms of media are now proliferating through online platforms like email and social media. They can also act as confirmations of moral principles, prejudices, and society-wide problems. The legends themselves can serve as entertainment but often do include material that warns of dangers to avoid. The stories themselves can range from terrifying to funny and goofy, but they tend to have a strange appeal that allows them to stick around in the mind, ready to be passed on to the next unsuspecting subject.
Unlike other fictional works, these legends are regularly circulated as if they were true, often having happened to a friend of a friend or some other distant relation. Urban legends are a genre of story that permeate entire cultures and serve as word-of-mouth tales of mysterious happenings.
