It's another day of sitting here doing basically nothing. I've spent the days mainly sat here catching up on some reading...a luxury I had to forfeit when GCSE's began. Oh and watching Dr Who episodes trying to figure out what the hell is going on with Amy Pond.
Additionally it's been a while since the last intellectual blog post. So now I'm going to go off on a tangent- feel free to skip to the end for milk and cookies (which will be virtual).
As the title suggest I'm thinking about the way we see things. It's been an interest of mine for a while now, the way we think and act...
In this little blog post I'll talk about how willing the media are to jump to conclusions that the end of the world is nigh, pretty much everyday. Everyone remember the Swine Flu scare right? When predictions were of thousands dead by the end of August, every story on the news was related, all those signs and adverts placed in countless lifts warning us that "coughs and sneezes spread diseases". I praise the government for their quick intervention, as if that had been an actual epidemic swift action would be needed, however in the end I believe the reason such widespread panic ensued was due to the portrayal the media made of a few deaths making a situation seem even more desperate.
And then there was the Large Hadron Collider which was going to cause a black hole and destroy the world...yeah right. Well I've since seen evidence which confirms the inpracticality of this conclusion. It isn't scientifically viable. Another story without a taken from a rumour and blown up into full scale mass panic.
What about all those foods that cause cancer then you see in the columns of various newspapers everyday. Half the time, you'll find these foods printed a couple of weeks later then claiming to be cures for cancer. The truth is that these things haven't been researched enough to come to an accurate, valid conclusion.
The rapture. Another example. All over the internet were comments of how the world would end, based upon one guys's predictions. Many people have predicted the end of the world, ever since early calendars were invented- has it ever happened? So why should people choose to believe this obvious nonsense this time around?
Why print stories when we can't be sure the conclusions are true at all. My answer to this would be that it's because deep down, wired into our minds as human beings we love scary stories. We revel in the hysteria caused by a new threat in our stable lifestyles. It gives us something to gossip about in the streets or with neighbours. Draws us together as worldwide race of human beings (granted this may only be on twitter where we voice our concerns and poke fun at some ridiculous ideas), plus it sells papers. After all we secretly all love pouring over these stories even if to mock them.
Next time you read something predicting the end of our existance, think to yourself- how much of this is hype, research your facts and think twice before buying into the mass hype that will undoubtedly unfold.
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