Let’s talk about FUD. It is a funny sounding word that might remind those born before the 1980s of a certain cartoon character who liked hunting “wabbit.” But the 21st century meaning of FUD as used by crypto enthusiasts in forums such as Reddit is anything but funny. FUD is an acronym for fear, uncertainty, and doubt. These three states-of-mind can be created by influencers whose aim is to skew public perception – which, unfortunately, is not really all that hard to do.

Changes in how we perceive things can start with one tweet from someone with a lot of Twitter followers, followed by mass retweets until everyone is in a “state of FUD.” It is what I like to call the “Pantene effect.” Those born before the 1980s (yes, the same ones already mentioned) need no further explanation. But for those born later – there was a TV commercial for Pantene Shampoo and Conditioner where a Pantene user with beautiful hair would tell two friends about Pantene and then they would tell two friends and those two friends would tell two more friends, etc., etc. So, back then, in the “olden days,” you had to have a lot of friends for word to get around. Now though, you just need a lot of Twitter followers who have their own Twitter followers. A name that comes to mind is, of course, Elon Musk. It was amazing how a tweet or two from Musk temporarily tanked Bitcoin. Did he know what he was doing? Was he purposely manipulating the market? If so, why? We may never know.

Back to FUD. How do we know when an influencer is trying to create fear, uncertainty, and doubt? Well, we really don’t. What we can do though, is our own research (and you may already know the acronym DYOR which stands for “do your own research”). We can trace our FUD back to its original source and, from there, try to figure out why someone with influence wanted us to experience FUD about a crypto (or a stock or a political candidate – you name it). The good news is, we don’t have to let people with large social media followings influence how we think or what we do. We can think for ourselves. We can do our own research, and we can access other sources – not just Twitter or other social media outlets.

I will close with one more fun acronym – HODL (hold on for dear life). When faced with FUD, keep calm and HODL on to the crypto or stock or other item an influencer has trash-talked until you DYOR.