We all do it. Sometimes it's obvious hyperbole - such as, "I'll never get out of work" or "5pm will never come." I'm not talking about that kind. I'm talking about the kind that's used to get a reaction or to get someone to do something that they normally wouldn't do if it wasn't exaggerated.

People will sometimes exaggerate to get sympathy. They will make their situation worse than it actually is so that the person feels bad for them and comforts them. Kids are great at exaggeration and often use it to get their way. One of the worst things a parent can do is exaggerate the consequences of their kid's actions. It may seem convenient as it allows them to keep their kid from disobeying or doing something harmful to themselves. While warning your kids is important, if you exaggerate the results of said actions, it plants the seeds of distrust in the kid's mind. Once they get older and realize it wasn't true they will start to doubt the other warnings and throw them off as too harsh.

The media is awesome at exaggeration. Sometime I don't even think they mean to, as they are just looking for attention-grabbing content. But it's desensitizing us to real problems. We've heard about swine flu now for a few days and the media is covering it like it's already the Bubonic Plague. To be sure, there certainly is a risk for pandemic and nobody really denies what COULD happen. But I'm also hearing people say that it will DEFINITELY be nothing but a short-lived fad... it's just the media is hyping it up.

We do want to be informed. We do want to take precautions. But let's both keep this in perspective and also let's not denounce it just because the media is attention crazy (which is kind of like saying that Wal-mart is sales-happy... it's their business). Most thinking people will take precautions based on cost/risk analysis. If we locked ourselves in our houses for the next year we'd be pretty safe, but who would do that? The cost is too high. But the other side is also dangerous - purely dismissing any and all threats just because the media is making a big deal of it. All pandemics start small and I'd venture to say (not being an expert) that they will evolve as they spread - just because we have a treatment now doesn't mean it will always be treatable. Panic? No. Deny? No.

Until the chances of dying from Swine Flu exceed the chances of dying in my car on the way to work tomorrow, I'm probably not going to change my lifestyle much. Could it hurt me? Yeah, but that's part of being human and living in a harsh world.