Gen Z Childhood Trauma Videos: Scary or Frightening
When we hear the term "Gen Z Childhood Trauma," what comes to anyone's minds? Is it the iceberg video made by Raymundo2112 where he discusses mostly creepy Youtube videos and creepypastas? Or is it the trend where many creators ranked a top-10 list of TV, video game, or movie moments that frightened them to no end until adulthood? Whatever the rush of memories comes to you, I will certainly rank them from scary to frightening, and by that I mean if it could be a one-time fright, or months and years of repressed memories from the fear. Without further ado, let's get into this fright-fest!This title beginning off this list is already self-explanatory. I feel genuinely sorry for any person who was unfortunate enough to stumble upon such videos because experiencing firsthand gore videos at age 7 is very concerning, to say the least. And as for shock sites, I do not get what is the fun or humor deriving from overtly sexual or graphic visuals flickered, or forcibly played on someone's screen. Jumpscare videos are just...well, they're actually slightly easy to get over but the impact they can leave is...a burning, lasting one with clickbait or just general deceitful titles that appeal to a young child only to leave them perplexed and shocked at the scare in just one click, is just the thrill of the kill for the creators of said videos.
These are actually tame compared to other stuff considered as childhood trauma. But hands down, everyone at least remembers a...timeless and decent creepypasta that scared them pantless as a child. But because of real-life murder cases linked to stories such as Slenderman and Laughing Jack, it somewhat contributed to the downfall of once-popular internet horror stories and myths.
Does anyone actually remember stumbling across this specific parody video by The Stringini Bros? But anyways, this was a darkly humorous satirical video of Dora (In an almost terrifyingly show-accurate art style) encountering gruesome fates such as, for example; Foolishly sticking her finger in an active electrical outlet, drinking chemicals or poisonous fluids with a gross shot of her green dead corpse lying on the floor to a bottle-shattering noise, sticking her finger in places she cannot get out, etc. And the worst thing of all for such a satirical animation? Sometimes, actual kids fall victim to deaths like poisoning, electrocution, and even venomous stings/bites from animals like scorpions.
Again, this is a general opinion on a general thing that scarred many different children in Gen Z ages.
I was originally going to put the EIA "Exploding Tiger Trick" PSA, but no matter what the PSA advocates against, I just really felt that generally giving attention to a mutual experience was suitable for this list. Anyways, moving forward with this pick, a lot of PSAS in anyone's time was usually bleak and crushing with reality to the brim. Some of these would even follow the bait-and-switch format, which would usually go like this; This PSA would usually show an innocent and cheery, child-friendly atmosphere in the first half of the video. Then, the announcer has a serious tone against the cheeriness, and then, the broad climax of the PSA/PIF is silence hitting the hard reality of the sensitive topic's introduction, as the voiceover chillingly restates that an estimated number of people pass away, die, or fall victim to XYZ because of not enough action or awareness being taken. But the majority of any PSA/PIF isn't tame, because they incorporate fear, sadness, and gore in a lot of these advertisements for awareness.
A branch to the general television and electronic alert systems found internationally all over the world, we've at least been caught off-guard by a specific country's alarm once, right? For example, the US and UK EAS alarm is regarded as one of the most infamous alarms, ever. But I commonly find these alarms just a simple thing to get a one-night fright from and they're...not really that scary compared to how others overexaggerate it to be.
The threat of a child going either missing or have been reported to be abducted or lost is a very real one. And the realization that sets in when one as a child hears the mere sound of that alarm, is a very devastating one. So, really, this might actually last a whole week of fear and paranoia because of the looming fear some shady person is out to get you.
These give me paranoia.
I hated these
Another self-explanatory title. These are really more gross than scary, but then again gross plays a factor in fear. The fact that we've all sat down and watched videos of either live-action or animated kid characters (Usually Spider-Man, Elsa, and/or Mickey and Minnie Mouse) and have seen some horrifying crap from said video, really says a lot about how questionable our childhood can be when we go on the internet without any supervision whatsoever.
If anyone does not know this infamous webcomic and its place as a selection in this list, rather than reporting on how it's scary, here's an actual summary instead for better understanding: The Bongcheon-Dong Ghost is an episode to a 2011 Korean horror webcomic made by Horang, and there are two notorious scenes that utilize jumpscares when someone scrolls down; When the ghost woman turns her head around slowly, and when the same ghost crawls ever-so otherworldly. And the thing worse about the gimmick? You can't scroll up or down away from the jumpscare, it just plays the animation forcibly and without warning.
Sometimes, some logos and their idents, especially during nighttime adult programming blocks after the 9 pm watershed, can be executed as genuinely scary and daunting to a child's perspective watching adult programs in secrecy. For example, think about the Teletoon at Night idents. One of the bumpers incorporates a literal jumpscare, an effective way to ward children off inappropriate content shown at night.
Now, there could be reasons as to why this is the last selection on the list. For me, it's more of a dishonorable mention if you will. While most horror games are fun and chilling because of their unique mechanics and jumpscares, nowadays they're more suited for Gen Alpha kids, because it's easy to outgrow the scares and the game itself because of Gen Alpha memes.