The One Thing that Scares Us All

I'm sitting at work right now, with no real work to do but an idea for a blog instead. So I think I'll do a quick blog.

The title of the blog might get some of you wondering about what it is I'm exactly referring to. Let me set it straight right now: No I'm not talking about a woman's period. Even though it's bloody and gross and...........ugghhh yeah that's pretty scary.

What I am talking about though has to do with an experience I had last Sunday. I was at home watching a YouTube video. After I was done with the video, I scrolled down to read the comments. Of course the first comment I hit happens to be one of those chain comments that supposedly gets you if you read it. It went something like this (my wording of it at least):


PLEASE DON'T READ THIS!

This upcoming Friday, the love of your life will find you and kiss you on the lips. Post this comment on 3 other videos, or this won't come true, and you will die in the next 2 days.


I've never really sat and read a comment like that before, that would go to such extreme measures. It usually resorts to ruining your ideal situation like "Post this comment, or that girl will be a FAT chick". This one seemed just outright malicious.

It also got me thinking about the effectiveness of the message. Obviously it had to be effective enough for someone else to feel the obligation or need to post it on other videos. For me, I can't say I was completely unphased after reading it, even if it was just in one of those "if I actually died in the next 2 days, that would be ironic" kind of ways.

I think it's just really interesting that when someone's life is threatened in the very least (even in a fictional manner), how quickly people are ready to do whatever it takes to lower that chance of death. I don't think there is anything that's close to the dramatic effect that a threat to our lives has on our mind. Even with surgeries or procedures, when there's even a 1% chance that it could be fatal, we start to jump to any alternative means we could use to lower that risk.

I remember being told about my back arthritis condition when it was first diagnosed, and that there was a very small portion of people who died from the condition. Even though I was told outright that my condition was mild in comparison, that chance of fatality really made me take the condition much more seriously.

In the end, I didn't post anything on any other videos. And now I'm past the 2 day mark, and still living. Even with no proof of evidence that the consequence would actually hold true, people start to get scared about the perverse effect that a simple comment could have on their lives. I think it's ironic that people are willing to base their actions and beliefs on something so trivial and unproven as a video comment like that, and yet they're presented with all the proof and evidence of God's existence, and find that harder to believe. Isn't something wrong with this picture?