It is no secret that young people today deal with fear daily. Our fears are realistically portrayed through our favorite television shows, movies, and even songs. As a society, we are surrounded and affected by fears in the world. Why?

Some might argue that in our modern era we are exposed to more frightening situations than any other period in history as a result of the prevalence of digital media. Think about it this way—the Civil War might not have been that scary to a young person living in Oregon in 1865 because he or she was not in the heart of the action, which took place primarily in the East. Chances are they never saw a picture of the conflict or new much of its detail as television and social media were not around. At this point, the war could have seemed very far away, so it did not require personal investment into the losses and victories of the conflict.

However, a terrorist attack today seems much more personal and interconnected in today’s society. The news breaks so quickly, and death tolls begin to appear on a television screen almost instantaneously with the names and faces of victims. After learning the victim’s stories, the event feels like it happened to someone that each of us knew, or possibly even someone we did know when so many of our friends and family are scattered across the globe.

Following these terrorist tragedies, such as in California or Paris, the general feeling of fear can stick with us for a long time. How can one feel safe when so many different tragedies occur all over the world in so many seemingly safe places, such as schools, banquet halls, or a sidewalk cafés? It can sometimes be difficult to shake off the fear, which is why many people today are so greatly affected with so much fear.

It is important to note that fear does not make someone weak. It is a natural human response to different events or feelings that we realize could possibly cause pain. It is easy to understand that a person might be afraid of spiders because he or she was once bitten by one in the past, or someone may experience a fear of heights because their sibling rocked the basket on the Ferris Wheel at the highest point, making the individual feel unsafe at such high altitudes.

On a greater scale, the communal feeling of fear caused by terrible events or wars affects a larger part of the population simultaneously. Not only does more of society feel fear, the feeling is also perpetuated by the availability of information all around us. A person can search the internet about any disease or event and all of that information can create a a thunderous roar of fear inside a person, especially if that event or disease is something that someone is unfamiliar with. Because most of us do not have any experience in facing this feeling of fear head-on, it isn’t easy to figure out a way not to be afraid of it.

For example, without having a personal experience with a terrible event, our minds leap to the worst scenario. We become afraid that such a tragedy could possibly happen to us, since the people who were involved were people going about their lives as normally as we were. We then jump to the next conclusion that a tragic event that just happened could have changed our lives so drastically. In this way, we become afraid of it and find it hard to let it go.  Rationally, these reasons are completely valid, and as the frequency of terrible events rises, our fears continue to increase.

So how can we combat fear in a constantly changing world with horrible events all around us? On a simplistic level, one way to take down our fear is to remember the many good things that happen in life, and the many good people there are in the world. By focusing on the positive, fears lose their power. Another way is to surround ourselves with the people that we love so that we have the support of people who care. This can help lessen feelings of fear. If a person is religious, fear can greatly be diminished by putting our faith and trust in God.

There is no question— fear is here to stay. But, by facing our fears and not submitting to them, as a society we can certainly become stronger and less fearful.