Ok to start off, I now must say, every time I do a blog I do it first in microsoft word and copy it into here. Today I forgot to do that. I pretty much finished writing my entry when I remembered. So instead of saving it on here, I was going to copy and paste it into microsoft word. However in that process I some how deleted and now I have to start again. Therefore, I am now not in the best mood and might not put the same amount of effort in as the first time :)
In looking at a classmates blog about the diagram we saw about what the perceptions are of hazards and what the reality is, I decided I wanted to comment on it as well. It as very surprising at the enormous difference between what is reality and what the perception is.
Some of things that surprised me:
People are very worried about terrorist attacks when the real chance of it happening is very small. Everyone is still worried about something that happened 9 years ago and feels like they need to stress over the hypothetical situation that it could happen again.
People are not very worried about cancer when it is a very big deal in our society today. Everything seems to cause cancer and there is cancer awareness everywhere. It seems as though once a week or once a month you hear about something else that causes cancer. What was brought to my awareness this summer however I was already somewhat aware, that tanning beds cause cancer! Big surprise!! So instead of walking around worrying about terrorist attacks, we should really be worried about all the cancer that is surrounding us today.
Some of things that surprised me:
People are very worried about terrorist attacks when the real chance of it happening is very small. Everyone is still worried about something that happened 9 years ago and feels like they need to stress over the hypothetical situation that it could happen again.
People are not very worried about cancer when it is a very big deal in our society today. Everything seems to cause cancer and there is cancer awareness everywhere. It seems as though once a week or once a month you hear about something else that causes cancer. What was brought to my awareness this summer however I was already somewhat aware, that tanning beds cause cancer! Big surprise!! So instead of walking around worrying about terrorist attacks, we should really be worried about all the cancer that is surrounding us today.
Plane crashes are another thing people are worried about when the hazard is very low. What people should really be worried about are car accidents. We drive cars or are passengers in cars almost everyday. We have to worry about what we are doing, pedestrians, other drivers, wild life, falling rocks, and anything else that can cause an accident. All of these hazards aren’t there when you are flying a plane. It is not very often you hear about a plane crashing. However we hear about car accidents every day. I don’t understand the logic behind what people are worrying about. It seems to me that people get stuck worrying about the huge things that only happen once every 10 years, instead of worrying about the things that affect us every day.
Kristie, every time I begin to write a blog my biggest fear is that I will just be about to finish it and my computer will crash or I will push a wrong button and the entire thing will disappear, so I sympathize with you losing your blog.
ReplyDeleteBut I wanted to share that I loved your post! I completely agree that people tend to worry about things that have a very small hazard associated with them and are not concern with things that should be of concern. I think people fear things that rarely happen because they are rare. If cancer was a rare thing, then the fear associated with it would probably be higher. I think part of the reason that people do not worry about cancer is because it is so common (although that definitely seems backwards!). It is almost a guarantee that everyone knows someone that has or has had cancer or been affected by cancer in some way. So I get the feeling that people are accustom to hearing about cancer and therefore they don’t worry about it as much. It’s that way with car accidents in Calgary too. Every morning or evening you hear about the various car accidents throughout the city but no one seems to be concerned about it, other than how it might affect their commute. It has become such a part of their daily life that no one fears it anymore.
On the other hand, something like a plane crash or terrorist attack seldom occur but people worry about it a lot more. I think a lot has to do with the media. You rarely hear about the individuals that die from cancer but you almost always hear about a plane crash or terrorist attack. I think the media can feed the fears of the public and augment the perceived hazard. So I challenge everyone to worry about things that of real hazard and do not listen to the hype of the media!
On a side note: One of the things that I thought was really funny was the fear associated with mobile phones, and yet everyone has one. Is the fear associated with getting cancer? Or what? This one didn’t make sense to me…
I just noticed you commented on this right now so I'm going to write back!
ReplyDeleteThat's probably true what you said. Cancer and car accidents are so common people don't care about them anymore. I don't think it should be like that though because if people aren't worried about car accidents they might not worry about how they drive or drinking and driving because they think oh that won't happen to me, or how common is it really? I don't know!
And the cell phone thing, ya I think it is associated with cancer. Pretty much everything is associated with cancer now it's rather scary. I sure hope some smart people start discovering cures for all types of cancer because it is something I actually worry about. My dad is actually struggling with melanoma right now so cancer is definitely always on my mind. It scares me because I love to tan in the summer, I don't like to be white. And my dad hardly was ever in the sun for long periods of time as long as I've been around but he said he used to be like me when he was younger. So it is definitely scary to think that a lot of probably have cancer just sitting in our bodies weighting for something to trigger it and make it malignant.
Anyways.... I hope not to hear anything about some freak thing happening after all of this talk!