With all this violence in the world today it’s impossible to not ask yourself what is making this happen. Is it all the violent video game or movies or is it just because we hear about it more due to mass media? I tend to think that it is because we hear about almost every violent thing that happens in the world as soon as it happens, which could make you feel like you are surrounded in violence. “In 2019, the Pew Research Center found that over half of Americans (54%) either got their news “sometimes” or “often” from social media, and Facebook was the most popular social media site where American adults got their news.”(Meyer Robinson, 2016) This means that people are seeing news faster than ever now and there’s almost no way to get way from news now a days I don’t think that humans are any more violent then we were before, but I do think that we are more scared then we have ever been. I think instead of violent movies and video games making us more violent I think it has made us more scared of it violence. I think this is due to people seeing things on movies and video games that would be the worst thing that could happen in that situation so it makes us fear the worst because we’ve seen the worst even if it is fake, it makes you think it could happen to you. I know I’m not the only one that uses what they see in movies to make choices sometimes if I have no other experience otherwise, but it’s not because I think that its right but because it’s all that pops into my head first. Movies are so much more relatable then they used to be, movies are now almost so realistic that it makes you feel like you are watching real life. Not just the special effects but the way the actors and actresses act in the sense and how the stories are written they are much more realistic there not nearly as predictable and the decisions they make are more on point to now people live in real life.

After watching the screening last week, it got me thinking about how people react to a bad situation and in particular the COVID-19 pandemic. I made me ask “would the COVID pandemic of been more controllable if people didn’t always fear the worst?” What I mean by that does the bad situations depicted in movies and video games make use fear the absolute worst case when things like sicknesses and wars? “When we watch a horror movie, it stimulates the brain and the brain responds with the physical and emotional sensations we call fear,”(Fellizar, Kristine, 2019) if we have real life bodily responses to horror movies could that mean if we encounter a situation that is similar of one that was in a movie could it trigger the same response even though it could not end up the same way as the horror movie. They could be connected, because when the news hit the USA that COVID-19 had started to pop up in the United States almost everyone ran to the stores to get everything they could just like every post-apocalyptic movie ever seen. Going to the stores were kind of scary to see empty shelves and not being able to get what you want or need in some cases. Would it have been so much easier if everyone remanded calm and just bought what we needed and there wouldn’t have been shortages. I’m not saying the pandemic wasn’t scary but if we didn’t have that fear surrounding us at all times.

On the other hand, there is a possibility that the panic came from our need to follow one another due to human nature which was shown in the Stanford prison experiment. If you are not familiar with the Stanford prison experiment was an experiment held in 1971 to see how people in power would respond with little instruction. They did this by splitting up 24 men in to random groups somewhere prison grads and somewhere prisoners.(McLeod Saul, 2020) This experiment was only able to be held for one week even though it was supposed to be 2 weeks this was because the guards of the fake jail were starting to harass and abuse the fake prisoners.(ibid) This experiment has been the one biggest example of social conformity to date, I think the actions displayed in the experiment can be found in the response in the COVID-19 pandemic because of the way everyone did just because they were seeing it happen. Just from seeing the people wait in line at grocery stores made people feel like they had to go too. Even the fear of bring the vires home on your food was a crowed fear that spread to a lot of people, people where wiping there food down with wipes before they even put it in their pantry or fridge. I’m not saying this wasn’t a good idea at all but it started with a few people and then before you knew it everyone was wiping their food off to just be safe. Humans are very smart animals but we have a burning need to follow the person in front of us, just because we are one of the smartest things on earth we still long for approval and not to be alone in making decisions.     

Meyer, R. (2016, July 07). How the Average American Gets Their News. Retrieved November 09, 2020, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/07/how-the-average-american-gets-their-news/490244/

Mcleod, S. (n.d.). The Stanford Prison Experiment. Retrieved November 09, 2020, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/zimbardo.html

Fellizar, K. (2019, September 30). Why Horror Movies Can Feel Comforting, According To Experts. Retrieved November 09, 2020, from https://www.bustle.com/p/why-horror-movies-can-feel-comforting-according-to-experts-18814314