Nation suffers from killer clown epidemic, struggles to control the virus of social media

Common fears are spread through social media outlets that take advantage of widespread coverage

Social media is undoubtedly the newest form of disease plaguing our nation. The negative impact of social media upon humans of all ages is shocking, and only increases in severity with each new viral story that is shared. Rarely, if ever, are the positive effects of social media exhibited, and instead the almost debilitatingly horrendous, attention-driven culture of online activity infests minds with unrealistic, unsafe and otherwise illogical ideas of how the world operates.

The latest social media virality involves the infamously creepy clown pandemic sweeping our nation. Many of us share an equally unfavorable opinion of clowns, and yet we still associate them heavily with the otherwise innocently spooky fun indulged in every Halloween season. However, whenever many of us enjoy something in healthy moderation, others must abuse the fun and ruin it entirely.

Deadbeats throughout the nation are now dressing in tacky clown costumes and stalking innocent people who happen to cross their paths. Videos have surfaced throughout the Internet showing clowns sprinting after random passersby, often visibly wielding weapons. Usually these videos take place in dimly lit, unpopulated, and otherwise middle-of-nowhere areas, the perfect locations for innocent fun to be escalated into something far less amusing.

So frighteningly intriguing are these clowns that their presence has essentially dominated every online media outlet over the last month. Moreover, the social media craze has transformed into a real-world problem covered by news networks throughout the country. Police forces are being called and asked to intervene, only furthering the seriousness of the situation and adding stress to police departments already stretched thin. Arrests have been made in Oregon, schools have been closed throughout the nation, and entire communities have been placed under curfew as a result of the social media fad.

The most unnerving part of the entire situation is the completely unknown nature of those behind the clown mask. Is it a prankster or is it a seriously demented person with entirely different motives? The once potentially annoying yet relatively innocent clowns have slowly metamorphosed into a sector of our nation’s most nightmarish. Should we continue supporting this craze, we will unquestionably yield morbid results.

Humans in our nation have been murdered under pretenses far less than that surrounding the clown epidemic. Weaponless, law-abiding, non-threatening citizens are killed every day on our soil. We kill one another at an alarming rate. Those dressed in purposefully intimidating costumes, faces covered, pursuing and threatening innocent people and visibly carrying weapons ought to seriously reconsider their own personal safety in performing such idiotic activities.

The truly awful reality of this clown situation will not manifest until someone is killed. The dismaying part of such a realization is that it will probably be a bright-eyed high school kid who was just out having fun with his friends trying to scare some fellow classmates. Sadly, only when tragedy occurs do others finally understand the consequences of their own actions. However, how many lives must we lose before the situation changes, and why must we even lose one?

Is it worth risking your life to dress as a cheap Halloween character and scare other people? If your answer is anything but an all-caps NO, please reevaluate your situation and stop the nonsense.