Over the past couple weeks, news about clowns put people in a state of clown hysteria. Specific parts of the country have been disturbed by the sightings of clowns or clown threats. The police have been trying to calm the public anxiety as clowns have been scaring residents either face to face or through social media. Clowns have reportedly lured children into forests and into the darkness. Authorities have been warning people about clowns using knives to frighten people and videotape their reactions. Although authorities say it is all a prank and the suspects are only trying to scare the people, it seems as if the prank got out of hand.

     Following this “prank”, people dressed in clown costumes have been arrested. Recently, two fourteen-year-old girls were arrested because they were connected with making threats against the schools. And a man was also recently arrested for dressing up as a clown and hiding in the woods. Some online people also terrorized a few schools, teachers, and students, by threatening violence against them. Once again, although officers said these threats were not credible, authorities were keeping a close eye on the schools they did threaten. How are we supposed to think and feel? They say it’s not true but they act like it’s true. Should we be scared?

     Several questions have been asked about the presence of clowns, some of which include “How big is this problem? Should I be losing sleep?” Several people replied to this question saying it was not a big problem, and you should not have been losing sleep. Local residents mentioned around 100 clowns were sighted as of now, and 100 clowns was not a big deal. They did not forget to tell the world what we should really be scared about, something that kills 400,000 lives each year; global warming and cars. It is true, global warming is a huge problem, yet it is not deeply thought about, and cars are way more dangerous than clowns, yet people have continued using them. So why does this seem like such a big problem?

     A reason this may seem huge is because people tend to have mass hysteria. A sociologist, Robert Bartholomew, says fear of clowns came from two things: “a fear of otherness and social media”. In other words, Bartholomew was saying information on social media spread quickly and made people believe the problem was bigger than it actually was.

     So what should people do? Although encountering a clown may be the most terrifying thing that comes across their lives, they need to remember it was just a costume. Maybe thinking the person under the mask is a human being just like them may help them get over their fear. Overall, clowns are scary but not scary enough.
     Numerous amounts of people believe this the most ridiculous “prank”. They believe the world should not have to worry about coming across a clown, and should really be concerned about real issues in the world, such as, like mentioned above, global warming. Are they right? If thought about, one could really wonder, when and what has the world become?