Generations have now advanced themselves technologically in every sphere of life, including education, lifestyle, food habits, and entertainment. Earlier, people watch MOVIES such as romantic and action. These were the two movie genres that were famous in the ’90s in India. For example, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Hum Saath-Saath Hain is the popular movies of the ’90s. But as generations have moved on, everyone is now accepting the new lifestyle with different eating, sleeping, and watching habits. With the advent of new mobile phones, internet services, there is an advent of web series similar to movies, and the difference between them both is that web series consists of episodes and movies are long 3-3.5 hour stories.
Due to lockdown, these web series are becoming famous in India as people are searching for new ways to entertain in the absence of new movies. People are now watching more web shows, and the genres now are mainly Horror, Sci-Fi, Fiction piled up under the supernatural genre. These series are not real, so here the question arises why humans get attracted to these non-fictions?
There are many scientific and test-proven reasons for humans to get attracted to these supernatural series. It increases the curiosity of humans as an individual is born with a desire to be curious in different ways and, fictional stories especially, of vampires, zombies, ghosts that enable a person to imagine and discover about these things that can create a creative mind.
These fictional genres affect our state of mind/level of mind in different types. Firstly let’s throw light upon these states/levels of mind that get affected by these kinds of fictional stories, movies, and web series related to the supernatural that consists of zombies, vampires, ghosts, and many more.
SIGMUND FREUD was the first person to throw some light upon this state/level of mind in an individual.
He gave three states of mind with some groundwork that focus on how these fictional and supernatural genres are affecting and influencing different states of mind.
Let first focus on these states of mind-
1. Consciousness/the Conscious Mind:
It is the state of mind that the person is aware of in their life. This state of mind consists of all the feelings, thoughts, emotions, desires that the person is aware of at any given moment or point in time. It is the state of mind that an individual is aware of 32 and can think about it rationally. All the processes such as decision making and problem-solving are often conscious as here a person is aware of all the decisions he/she is taking or thinking of a solution to a problem. It refers to individual awareness of space and time, where awareness refers to external and interior stimuli.
For example, I am aware that I am studying right now for the test that has to be conducted tomorrow by my teacher. When we see supernatural movies, whether it includes ghosts, zombies, vampires, all in all, total fiction, it has a small impact on our conscious mind. As when we see any supernatural series concerning these contents, we know that it is all imagination and not real as one is aware of all the realities of life. These all situations led to a belief that this cannot be true and, one ended up having the least influence on the conscious state of mind by these supernatural series.
In our daily being, even when one sees these kinds of series one, watches it to erase the boredom or to keep oneself entertained, but in reality, one knows it cannot happen in real and in consciousness, one thinks that it is not influencing us at all. But, the impact of these supernatural series is very different in other states of mind. Here, imagination and curiosity play a minor role and, when one lives in reality, they repress all the other thoughts into a preconscious and unconscious state of mind.
2. Preconsciousness/preconscious Mind:
It is the state of mind that one is not aware of currently, but the person can become aware of this if he/she focus on it more and view it. It consists of all the feelings, thoughts, and desires that an individual can bring up in the conscious mind rationally is thinking by an individual and can use this information in various situations. Thus, this state of mind is a link between the conscious and the unconscious mind where all the mental activity gets comprises about people can become aware if they attend to it closely. For example, one cannot remember the breakfast they ate two days back but, when focused upon closely, then can be aware of all the memories that just got missed as one do not attend to it. All the supernatural shows and movies mentioned above have a vast influence on this state of mind compared to the conscious mind. As in this state of mind, one chooses to attend to these emotions, feelings, thoughts, or urges and, the person can even forget, or the content can go to the unconscious mind if they do not want to attend it.
So this series has an enormous influence on this state as here individuals not focus on reality, and the individual can live into their imaginative and creative world. This state of mind is less dark than the unconscious mind. We have heard the quote, The Power of Subconscious Mind. So, we tend to keep information regarding these kinds of series, which according to many pieces of research, one watches it most of the time as it interests them and wants something like this in their life. It does not correlate with the reality that led an individual to keep it in one’s preconscious mind.
3. Unconsciousness/unconscious Mind:
It is the state of mind of which one is not aware. This state of mind acts as a reservoir for all the emotions, feelings, desires, and urges one is not aware of and is completely dismiss by the conscious mind. One cannot be mindful of this state of mind, even after focusing closely upon it as preconscious until and unless one goes to a therapist and therapies appropriate in the treatment have different methods and techniques. This state of mind has all the content that is outside of our conscious mind. Sigmund Freud has given a term for this state of mind name as a tip of the iceberg. Here, he uses the term tip to refer to the fact that this state of mind is invisible, just as a tip of an iceberg.
One cannot ever be aware of this state until, and unless, it comes into dreams, humour, and mispronunciations. In these places, the information does not get dismissed as it gets in real life by the society that considers these contents harmful for the customs. For example, a mother loses his son in an army mission but represses this memory in their unconscious and thinks that her son is still on that mission. All the supernatural series have a profound influence on this state of mind and, according to many pieces of researches, this state of mind is the most impacted one by these kinds of series. It enhances a surge of curiosity, imagination, and fiction in our minds that, lastly, finds a home in the unconscious only as it does not disguise any material that is non-reality.
These kinds of series initiate a type of imagination and creation in an individual’s mind and, thus, they find happiness. These shows also provoke strange questions in one’s mind where an individual tries to find answers to these vague and disguised questions. This state of mind increases these kinds of contents as this state does not correlate with reality. It includes all the information that the conscious mind represses. In the end, the series is the creation of humans that states that one somehow thinks that it can all be real and wants something like that in our lives. It does not correlate well with reality. Thus, the CONSCIOUS STATE OF THE MIND dismisses this kind of information.
Let’s look on to the positive and negative influences of these supernatural series on the state of mind:
Positive:
One tends to see these series as it initiates a kind of excitement within a person. There are fear and confusion alongside excitement is at its peak and can positively influence our state of mind as when an individual is excited, he/she is most active in varied activities that can initiate a lot of creative work from an individual. This supernatural series magnifies creativity in the individual in terms of divergent thought processes. We all know creativity plays a role in good outcomes in one’s life as when one sees this kind of shows and movies, all these build up a type of story that heads up a person to think in more divergent and varied ways.
Negative:
There is an occurrence of fear, confusion, and anxiety as the person confuses between fiction and non-fiction and lastly creates and imagines situations that are not real in their minds. For example, we see kinds creating images of Doraemon, a famous cartoon famous in various parts of the world and India but, can impact the individual very badly in turns a lot of anxiety and disorders get to impinge on the individual. But along with creativity and imagination, there comes a downside that is being outside of reality. When one focuses more on creativity in terms of supernatural series, one can get overall turned off from real existence and real situations that can lead to a severe disorder such as schizophrenia consists of hallucinations and delusions.
Let’s experience some of the Bollywood and Hollywood supernatural shows and movies featuring on Netflix to understand the influence on our state of mind.
Vampire Diaries:
The most loved one supernatural TV shows in different parts of the world, VAMPIRE DIARIES, and an 8-season long web show that consists of all the psychic creatures one can even imagine of, vampires, werewolves, witches and, ghosts. It is the most popular series among fans and, it is a full-fledged example of how these series impact people and their state/level of mind not only due to the sake of watching something. Instead, it interests people as it shows fiction on a very realistic basis that enhances creativity and imagination.
Ghoul:
Created in Indian culture short series of GHOUL can be binge-watched in a single day but shows the supernatural creatures that feed on people. It cannot be real as this series shows ghosts but shows it as a realistic story that can leave a long-lasting impact on individual states of mind and how one processes the information. The most important one is that these shows can change how a person thinks and processes all the information s it shows such fiction in a very real-life way.
Dark:
Recent and the most loved but has created an upsurge among youth, named as series DARK, which does not show any zombie or vampire kind of thing but shows fiction in a very different way through walking in the past, present, future and even a different world simultaneously. It has also focused on a supernatural concept of time machine according to many pieces of research. This series is the most loved one by the fans in recent times. Nonetheless, the most confusing show ever because it deals with time in a very fictional and supernatural way.
Twilight:
A movie in Hollywood named TWILIGHT, again very famous among young males and females, shows a typical love story but with a twist of a love story between a vampire and a human, turning this shows as creating another supernatural tangent presents it in a very realistic way. But these series can have a profound and long-lasting negative impact on people and youth’s minds as it initiates thoughts and desires that cannot become lasting as presented in the movie twilight.
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