I don't know about you, but I have never been a fan of clowns. The excessive face paint and obnoxious jumpsuit have always made me a bit uneasy. The very sight of them sends shivers down my spine. With everything happening in today's society, this new crazy clown outbreak has definitely caused a stir around the country.

A few Facebook news articles about clowns attempting to lure children into the woods have turned into Twitter accounts documenting videos of threatening clown sightings in various parts of the country, everywhere from parking lots to the deep woods. As with every social media trend, there are a few related concepts that need to be addressed.

I have seen a few posts stating that some of this hype may be related to publicity for the new IT movie, which I can understand. I can totally see how public advertisements can enhance interest and publicity in a creative way. However, with the immense amount of sightings there have been, this has got to be more than a way to advertise a movie. Some of these clowns have been seen with weapons and intent to threaten in some way.

It is truly bothersome to see these sorts of posts on my feeds, whether or not they're real. There is a psychological concept associated with clowns that provoke fear in plenty of people, so this rise in sightings is truly alarming for everyone around this time of year, with Halloween just around the corner.

This joke is starting to be taken a bit too far. People post "clown sighting" videos to various forms of social media, and while some are laughably fake and staged, others do seem to be genuine and it's rather frightening.

You can surely bet I'll be running for the hills if I see a clown; I'm definitely not clowning around on that.