"Doom" and the internet. What are your thoughts?

originally posted by: nukedog
FB tracked emotions and how they spread. It's all over the internet if you want to google it. Fear is extremely similar to a virus.

Yep, it's called social contagion. I'd also hazard that some particularly virulent forms of social contagion aren't just spread on the net but may be reinforced on tv as well. Let's take a nice hindsight look at probably one of the most talked about doomiest subjects of them all--2012--and how this particular idea spread, step by step.

1. Books published discussing the subject of the Mayan apocalypse. Graham Hancock's Fingerprint of the Gods became a bestseller whilst touting that particular one and he wasn't the only author authoring books that touched on the subject of a 2012 apocalypse.

2. Online discussion of 2012 apocalypse further fed the fans of interest, leading to the ideas being of interest enough for step 3.

3. TV shows covering the subject of a potential apocalypse occurring in 2012 and, of course, culminating in a film by that name.

4. More tv shows, documentaries arguing this way or that about 2012 apocalypse theories. . This particular idea/virus is now getting exposed across multiple media levels--books, tv and film (documentary and fictional), and online discussion, which then leads us to generalized apocalypse themes.

5. Lots of tv shows and movies start cropping up with apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic themes outside of 2012 because of "interest in apocalypses" in around 2010 to 2011. 2011 rolls around and you start seeing news articles on the subject--is the 2012 apocalypse going to happen? Usually dismissive of the idea. You've got maximum exposure to apocalyptic themes at this point as it is everywhere--social media, tv/film, news articles, blog posts, online discussions, and more. As many as 1 in 4 believed that something was going to happen in December of 2012.

Now that almost looks like a conspiracy til you start looking at it as those producers of tv and film are going to be looking for what is of interest to the public right now as having one's finger on the pulse of viewers is kind of an important thing. When that happens though, it turns a social contagion pretty virulent.

Now that 2012 is done, we've got a new doom theme. All that talk about Orwellian this or that over the last few years and what has that started to churn out? Dystopian movies--yet another brand of doom.

Gotta love social contagion, especially when it's fed by producers and publishers.

PS. Used to do some stuff for Hancock so I saw this one coming early. Running into one of the first preppers back in 2002 made me question my involvement with the guy. The guy was absolutely certain that the Mayan apocalypse was real. Should explain why I watched the theme's development so thoroughly. And as a fyi, he should've seen it coming, too. He has a degree in sociology.