Have you ever felt that people talked up something so much that you believed that it was that amazing? With the internet at our fingertips, we can see thousands of opinions about one movie, book, video game, and many other forms of entertainment. Even without the internet, we have friends that talk about how great a movie was and then make inside jokes about the movie. Overhype by definition means exaggerated claims about or publicized excessively. When people overhype something then we set our expectations to the bar that matches the claims. I recently got overhyped with Get Out. I saw Get Out and thought that it was an okay movie. It’s not bad but I didn’t think it was good either. My friends all said that it was their favorite movie of all time. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 99% and it made $253 million off a $4.5 million budget. I watched it and felt that I missed out on something because I just did not have the same reaction that everyone else had. The three signs you got overhyped are the excitement, the waiting, and the Let Down.
The Excitement
When people claim that a movie is amazing and great then you better run right for the door. You cannot believe the opinions of others especially with music, movies, TV shows, and other forms of entertainment. Most forms of entertainment are based on emotions and emotions vary drastically from person to person. But the talk about a form of entertainment is just too much to turn away from. People truly believe what they say when they talk about movies because it is true to them. You then start to believe in them that the thing must be amazing. So, you then base these unrealistic expectations on what others say around you. All of the reviews say the form of media is great and these people are experts, so at least you can trust them. After all of the praise, deep down you feel the excitement wash over you. Now you have committed to the idea that it will be amazing.
The Waiting
This is the saddest step of the three signs. You pop in the movie that you have heard so much about and the excitement is still inside of you waiting to burst. For the first thirty minutes, you try your best to love it you. You point out the little things that make you think it’s amazing. While you watch it, there is a disconnect. You keep waiting for it to get great. You wait for it to be your favorite movie of all time but it does not come. The stuff that happens is cool but not super cool as you were led to believe. The movie does not get better. It stays as good as it was in the beginning but does not make a big jump. By the time you realize it, the game, movie, show is over.
The Let Down
When the movie is over, you feel robbed. The crushing realization that movie was not as a great as you were told leaves you feeling tricked. It is a real bummer when you had all of the excitement to realize that it was all for nothing. You get too attached to it, that with all of the positive reactions to it that you feel there needs to be a negative reaction to balance it out so you dislike a movie. Most likely you will not dislike it as much if you saw it without any input, but with all the input you dislike it even more. Overhyping something can make a game go from a good to okay and an okay to bad.
Overhyping can only lead to disappointment.
