design: Lily Clark
It’s 2019, and many people are highly anticipating the newest video in YouTuber Shane Dawson’s conspiracy theories series. Diving deeper into the mysteries of varying conspiracy theories in videos over an hour and a half long, Dawson explored the truths and lies for himself.
Prior to his own controversies, Dawson had a huge following on social media, and he made conspiracy theory videos on YouTube that garnered much attention. These videos amassed millions of views and created mass hysteria, especially surrounding theories behind companies such as Chuck E. Cheese and Mattress Firm. These theories may not originally have been serious, but the dark, ominous tone Dawson utilized in his videos made viewers react in strong force.
In a video titled“Investigating Conspiracies with Shane Dawson”,Dawson discussed the idea that Chuck E. Cheese was recycling their pizza slices customers left behind and giving them to new customers. Dawson pointed out the strange shapes of slices not fitting together, and even went to Chuck E. Cheese to check it out for himself.
This small portion of the larger video caused a huge frenzy of people thinking this was true. Even if people didn’t think it was true, they continued to add to the discourse and spread this theory wide across the internet, impacting Chuck E. Cheese’s business. Many people even went to Chuck E. Cheese after the video and would post about their own findings there.
Dawson’s videos led to a huge conspiracy theory boom on YouTube, creating massive conversation surrounding conspiracy theories. The conversation didn’t just stay on YouTube, though, and it jumped to other social media sites such as Twitter and TikTok as well.
The videos also raised the question of how far is too far when discussing theories on real events, people, and companies. For example, there are various theories surrounding 9/11 and assassinations that many people believe in or share on the internet. Additionally, with so much misinformation, it’s easy to get caught up in it all and blindly follow theories.
Gen Z commonly falls victim to misinformation, and sometimes people will know something is likely fake and continue to talk about it anyway. Gen Z also typically seems to like making elaborate jokes, and spreading a conspiracy theory that birds work for the bourgeoisie as a joke was an example of such. Teens made various videos on YouTube and TikTok playing into the joke that birds were drones or worked for the bourgeoisie, leading to public confusion.
Overall, YouTube is a large source of entertainment and news for us but also a source for conspiracy theories to become widespread. Did Disney create the movie “Frozen” to distract the public from the theory that Walt Disney froze himself after he passed away? Did Avril Lavigne die and become cloned? Is Mattress Firm secretly laundering money?
These questions may sound ludicrous, but there are people believing in these theories and hoping to spread their ideas with others. It’s important when we hear about theories that we seek out facts and avoid becoming the next victim of misinformation, and also be able to separate entertainment from truths.
