Is hysteria built in? The word does derive from a Latin and ultimately from a Greek word meaning “from the womb.” It was, unfortunately, a word long associated solely with women, but with the current number of hysterical outbursts in all forms of media by people across the spectrum of humanity, hysteria appears now to be a genderless term.
Of course, there are currently different uses of the word. We use it, for example, with regard to emotions centered on potential pandemics, such as the outbreak of ebola. And we use it with regard to emotionally charged political statements. Whether or not we are all naturally a bit “hysterical” depends on the role we allow the deep brain’s amygdalae to play in responding to any perceived threat, great or small, physical or ideological. All our uses of hysteria and hysterical imply some out-of-control emotional response. Almost nowhere is such "hysteria" more prevalent than it is in social media and in the comment sections beneath online essays.
AS WE ALL KNOW, USING CAPITAL LETTERS IS EQUIVALENT TO SHOUTING. And apparently, shouting dominates verbal exchanges when we are under a perceived threat to our ideas. So, we take one of two approaches: WE CAN RECIPROCATE. Or, we can remain calmmmmmmmm, acting as rationally as we cannnnnnnn.
SHOUTING really doesn’t work. I’m getting a headache just looking at those capital letters I wrote. ARE YOU LISTENING TO THIS? See? You, like me, reject the caps.
Under the “noise” of so many “capital letters” in our interactions, we might become similar to the villagers that eventually ignored Peter when he “cried wolf” in the presence of a real wolf, or we might become an unnecessarily stressed population for which every event and idea makes us slightly to fully hysterical.
We will continue to live in a land of hysteria unless individually we keep our messages—and our voices—in the lower case.
Of course, there are currently different uses of the word. We use it, for example, with regard to emotions centered on potential pandemics, such as the outbreak of ebola. And we use it with regard to emotionally charged political statements. Whether or not we are all naturally a bit “hysterical” depends on the role we allow the deep brain’s amygdalae to play in responding to any perceived threat, great or small, physical or ideological. All our uses of hysteria and hysterical imply some out-of-control emotional response. Almost nowhere is such "hysteria" more prevalent than it is in social media and in the comment sections beneath online essays.
AS WE ALL KNOW, USING CAPITAL LETTERS IS EQUIVALENT TO SHOUTING. And apparently, shouting dominates verbal exchanges when we are under a perceived threat to our ideas. So, we take one of two approaches: WE CAN RECIPROCATE. Or, we can remain calmmmmmmmm, acting as rationally as we cannnnnnnn.
SHOUTING really doesn’t work. I’m getting a headache just looking at those capital letters I wrote. ARE YOU LISTENING TO THIS? See? You, like me, reject the caps.
Under the “noise” of so many “capital letters” in our interactions, we might become similar to the villagers that eventually ignored Peter when he “cried wolf” in the presence of a real wolf, or we might become an unnecessarily stressed population for which every event and idea makes us slightly to fully hysterical.
We will continue to live in a land of hysteria unless individually we keep our messages—and our voices—in the lower case.
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