Golden Eagle Snatches Kid, Essay Example

The headlines were breathless and provocative, describing the “shocking” video -taken in a Montreal park- that showed a golden eagle attempting to “snatch” a toddler (Radar Online, 2012). In the video, the eagle is seen swooping down upon a small toddler before gripping the child in its talons and carrying the hapless youngster off (Sargent, 2012). Fortunately for the child, and his parents, the eagle is not strong enough to maintain its grip, and after a few anxious moments the child slips from the eagles grasp and tumbles to the ground. The moments in the video featuring the attack on the child are actually part of a longer video that was taken by a family during an outing to the park, and they only happened to capture the excitement on tape because the camera operator had noticed the eagle soaring overhead, and decided to record the sight of the beautiful bird. The camera operator had no reason to expect the eagle would suddenly try to steal the small child playing nearby, but in a stroke of good luck and fortunate timing, the camera was rolling when the eagle made its swift attack. Video of the shocking scene quickly went viral, making its way around the globe and garnering millions of views over the next 24 hours (Stokel-Walker, 2014). As we now know, of course, the video was a hoax, leaving all of those who fell for it –and those who did not- to wonder why such videos become so popular.

To be fair to those who viewed the video and believed it to be legitimate, it must be noted that it is extraordinarily well-done. In the first few seconds of the video the camera is panning across the sky, tracing the slow gliding of a far-off bird. It is a scene we have all witnessed countless times in real life, admiring the simple beauty of a bird in flight. The bird in the video is far away enough that it is not possible to identify the breed, but there is no question that it is a large bird, likely an eagle or hawk of some kind. The camera view is slightly shaky, and the bird almost leaves the frame for a moment as the amateur videographer attempts to follow it across the sky. All the little details involved in establishing a sense of reality are firmly in place; up until the moment of the “attack,” there is simply no reason to suspect that any fakery or trickery is involved.

“The bird tried to snatch a small toddler”

The video continues to follow the patch of the bird, which looks as if it might simply fly off into the distance and out of sight. Just as it is cresting the tops of some nearby trees, however, it turns and begins to swoop back and downward, towards the ground. The videographer struggles to follow the bird’s path, and the image becomes shaky and slightly out of focus. The videographer manages to sweep the camera quickly enough to capture a flurry of movement as the bird reaches forward with its talons and grabs at something on the ground. Everything happens so quickly that it is difficult to actually see what happened, but it is clear by the exclamation of the camera operator (“oh s***!”) that something surprising has occurred. The camera lens suddenly points away and down as the operator abandons his effort to film the scene and instead runs to offer help. At that moment the video is edited to show a slow-motion replay of what happened, and it is only then that it becomes clear exactly what happened: the bird tried to snatch a small toddler.

“Golden Eagle Snatches Kid”

Even in slow-motion the video looks startlingly realistic. The bird is now much closer to the camera, and it is possible to get a sense of its size; it is clearly a large bird of prey. Its intended victim is a small child, no more than a year or two old, and for a moment it appears that the bird might be successful in its effort to drag the poor child away. Everything about this video looks entirely authentic (except perhaps to avian experts who know that a bird of this size could not lift a child off the ground). In fact, the scene captured in the video looks just like the kind of footage often shown in nature documentaries and other real-life scenes. Even the attack on the child seems possible, if unlikely; what is most unusual about the video is just the blind luck and fortunate timing of the videographer who caught the scene on his camera. Given the unusual and even shocking nature of the attack, it seems understandable that the video went viral and quickly made its way to computer and phone screens around the world.

Almost as quickly as the video went viral, however, it was revealed to be a hoax (snopes.com, 2012). It turned out to be the joint creation of a group of students at a design school; these students were specifically interested in developing videos for the purpose of generating viral popularity (Hsu, 2012). While there is no question that they did an outstanding technical job in terms of creating a realistic-looking video, it is still interesting to note the lack of credulity of so many millions of viewers in the age of CGI and other digital technology. Most people who are even passingly familiar with computer technology are aware of their capacity to create realistic images, yet a quick Internet search reveals that most viewers accepted at face value that this video was real. This raises a number of questions: why are people so willing to believe the veracity of this sort of video, and why did it become so popular?

“They ‘are incredibly expressive kids’”

In the article “Why Do Videos Go Viral,” published by Wired.com in 2011, author Jonah Lehrer explores the physiological and biological responses viewers have to certain types of images. Using an example of a viral video called “Charlie Bit My Finger -Again!”  Lehrer notes that the two boys who appear in the video capture the attention of viewers for a number of reasons. Primary among these reasons, asserts the author, is that they “are incredibly expressive kids” (Lehrer, 2011). In the brief video, their faces run the gamut of different emotional expressions, from “anticipation to agony to laughter” (Lehrer, 2011).

“Charlie Bit My Finger –Again!”

Simply put, claims Lehrer, we are physiologically hard-wired to “enter into a state of high arousal” in response to emotional stimuli, a state which releases endorphins in the brain, activates sweat and adrenal glands, and increases respiration and heart rate (Lehrer, 2011).Regardless of the emotional stimuli that trigger such arousal –whether the humor of “Charlie Bit My Finger” or the spurt of anxiety prompted by the “Golden Eagle” video, the underlying state of arousal is similar.

“We are hard-wired to ‘enter into a state of high arousal’ in response to emotional stimuli”

The state of arousal that is triggered by amusing or even frightening videos may explain why we enjoy watching them, but why do we also enjoy sharing them? Lehrer asserts that there is a physiological basis for this as well; according to the experts he interviewed for his article, Lehrer states that these “states of arousal make people far more likely to share information” (Lehrer, 2011). Whether the stimulus is humor or fear or happiness or sadness, we seem wired to want to share the information that triggered our arousal. In the article “Going Viral: Factors That Lead Videos to Become Internet Phenomena,” author Tyler West assesses a number of the most popular viral videos of 2010, and determines that they tend to share a number of features, including such factors as brevity, humor, and surprise (West, 2010). Whether a video features a pair of laughing toddlers or a sudden attack by a golden eagle, the response it triggers is something that we are inclined to share with others.

The answer to the question of why we fall for hoax videos, and share them with others, may be explained by the same physiological phenomena. The arousal that is triggered by such videos is both swift and involuntary. According to Lehrer, the desire to share information during a state of arousal is equally involuntary (Lehrer, 2012). If the state of arousal triggered by a real video is no different than the arousal triggered by a hoax video, then our desire to share the stimulating information likely overrides our inclination to stop and assess the veracity of the video. This is amplified by the technology itself, where sharing information with one person, thousands of people, or the entire Internet is as quick and easy as clicking a link or forwarding an email. A viral video like “Golden Eagle Snatches Kid” becomes popular because it generates a primal physiological response in viewers, and also because the Internet makes it possible for viewers to share the video with other people while still in the aroused state.

What makes the phenomena of viral videos so remarkable is the way they are rooted both in our primal physiology and our contemporary technology. It is not just the technology used to share a video like “Golden Eagle Snatches Kid” that makes it unique to our contemporary culture; it is also the technology used to create the video in the first place. Even videos that are not hoaxes require the use of technology to record and transmit them. But a video like “Golden Eagle” is especially noteworthy, simply because it was purposefully constructed to become a viral video (Zimmerman, 2012). In the time it takes for the eagle to swoop down on the helpless toddler, viewers can hit “send” and pass the video along to the rest of the world. It takes much longer for our reason and logic to catch up with our primal selves; by the time we realize the video is a hoax, we are moving on to the next viral sensation. In the age of the Internet worldwide popularly just takes the click of a button.

Works Cited

Hsu, Jeremy. ‘Creators Of ‘Golden Eagle Snatches Kid’ Video Admit Hoax’. LiveScience.com. N. p., 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.

Lehrer, Jonah. ‘Why Do Viral Videos Go Viral? | Science Blogs | WIRED’. WIRED. N. p., 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.

Radar Online,. ‘Golden Eagle Snatches Child In Shocking New Viral Video’. N. p., 2012. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.

Sargent, Jordan. ‘Baby Goes For Ride After Being Snatched By Swooping Eagle’. Gawker. N. p., 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.

Snopes.com,. ‘Snopes.Com: Golden Eagle Snatches Kid’. N. p., 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.

Stokel-Walker, Chris. ‘How “Golden Eagle Snatches Kid” Ruled The Internet’. BuzzFeed. N. p., 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.

West, Tyler. ‘Going Viral: Factors That Lead Videos To Become Internet Phenomena’. 76—The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications 2 n. pag. Print.

YouTube,. ‘Mrnuclearcat’. N. p., 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.

Zimmerman, Neetzan. ‘All The Reasons That Baby-Snatching Eagle Video Is Fake [UPDATE: Fakery Confirmed]’. Gawker. N. p., 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.