8 Glasses of water?

Recently I was questioning a lot of things I have been told. Things like you should drink 8 glasses of water a day or you should eat an apple a  day. It made me question where does this idea come from and why. I recently found an article on the New York times that addressed this. Apparently the article states that there is no science behind this myth. Although it also says that dehydration in the summer is a huge problem. This article ties in the with area of knowledge human sciences but then again it helps us understand where this myth comes from. After analyzing the real life situation again I was able to draw the conclusion of the bandwagon effect. The article claims that this myth comes from the United states in the early 1950's when dehydration was a major problem. In order to get citizens to start drinking more water US officials, companies like USDA and The national health organization started scaring people that drinking water would result in horrible outcomes and came up with the slogan, drink 8 glasses of water a day. This slogan resonated and is still today known.  Personally I am glad that this article set the myth straight

Real Life Situation
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/upshot/no-you-do-not-have-to-drink-8-glasses-of-water-a-day.html?action=click&contentCollection=science&region=stream&module=stream_unit&contentPlacement=33&pgtype=sectionfront&hash=8cace9a5-eace-4943-936c-47e81461225d