What does the fact that 1.5 million people signed up to a Facebook group intending to storm Area 51 say about the state of the world?

We think people will do anything for clout, however the hype behind this is irresponsible due to the presence of people who could truly believe it. 

In June, a Facebook event titled, “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” launched. The page’s about section simply stated, “We will all meet up in Rural Nevada and coordinate our parties. If we naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Let’s see them aliens.”

Within a few weeks, the page had over a million people interested in the event, although the creator of the Facebook page has since released a statement, claiming the entire page is a joke. 

The event is scheduled to happen this weekend, and with so little time left before it begins, some of us who are not going are wondering if it’ll actually happen. 

It must be assumed most people on “Storm Area 51” page are interested in the memes and niche humor uploaded by others on the page’s discussion board. After all, the sort of dry humor prevalent on the page is in line with the comedy Generation Z or late millennials are attracted to. 

For example, one person posted a status to the group asking, “Anyone carpooling???” to which a commenter replied, “Driving’s too slow. Naruto running is faster.” 

Yet a worrying number of contributors to the page’s content are asking questions such as, “Can someone please stream this?” and “So we doing this or not?” One user commented, “I’m actually going. Got the bnb in vegas.” 

The worry regarding these comments is engrained in the reality that there are some people who may actually try to go. Even if only 0.1% of people who marked ‘interested’ went to Nevada, that’s still 1,500 individuals.

The United States Air Force released a statement warning potential attendees that Area 51 is a military training site, and they “would discourage” unauthorized entrance into the property.

The movement to storm Area 51 is essentially a social experiment, exposing what kind of people have access to the internet nowadays as well as how far will people go for so-called “internet clout,” that which we are all accustomed to.

Back in 2018, the “Tide Pod challenge” went viral and encouraged many people to post videos of themselves consuming Tide Pods on the internet. After several reported cases of ingested Tide Pods, the trend was publicly admonished and Proctor and Gamble, the company that owns Tide detergent products, released a statement warning people of the serious health risks associated with partaking in the trend. Despite this, it took a long time for the trend to actually die out and this trend became closely associated with Generation Z, which contributes heavily to the Area 51 memes.

The Courier staff strongly discourages going to the “Storm Area 51” event. Go ahead and laugh at the memes, just don’t get hurt for internet fame.