Events that are extremely rare, are spread all over the Internet, and people start believing they are common.
It is sampling bias error, promoted by the nature of mass access to video-recorders on our phones.
Events that are extremely rare, are spread all over the Internet, and people start believing they are common.
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Bread and butter of MSMedia.
I am often making that point. Not only do we see more than ever because of smartphone recording, it spreads around the world almost immediately. Making things seem way more out of control than they may actually be statistically.
That's the same reason my family thinks I am nuts for working in New York City. (Well I am nuts, but that's a different thread for a different day.)
Fact is, midtown Manhattan is a fairly boring place during the workday. People commute in and head to their offices, tourists clog the streets, people line up at food trucks at lunchtime and at the end of the day, millions of workers slog back to the trains for their commute home. It's all humdrum stuff.
Yet the outsider to NYC has the impression it is a lawless, violent war zone due to all the viral videos of bad happenings there. I almost never see anything like that. Then again, I don't venture into bad neighborhoods after dark either.