However, this year is unlike any flu season we have encountered, because it’s not just a normal flu season. This year we have to deal with the dreaded “swine flu.”

Now before you get yourself worked up and scared to touch anything or be around people for the rest of the day, read this: Swine flu is not that bad.

I know I just contradicted everything you have read and heard in the news, but that is because the news needs to over-cover and sensationalize things to keep you glued.

Now, if you were made to believe you will die if you get swine flu, you would be more attentive to the news on the subject. The fact is that the media is a business. News organizations thrive on people watching, reading and listening to the information they produce. Therefore, they need to keep you continuously returning to get updates on the information you saw before or find new things to keep your attention.

By blowing up this flu to be a deadly pandemic, they scare the public into wearing ridiculous surgical masks and avoiding other people altogether. All this to prevent the flu.

Why don’t we do this every year? The flu is the flu. Putting “swine” or “bird” in front of it is not going to make it any worse.

It is true that there have been deaths because of swine flu. There are deaths every year because of the flu. Those deaths are in the elderly and the very young age groups, not the mid-age people who are the majority of those buying into this hysteria.

This past weekend I was walking into Meijer when I witnessed a family of four — a father, mother and two kids around 13 — all wearing surgical masks. I was floored. I would have asked them why they were wearing the masks, but someone beat me to it.

The woman who works as a greeter for Meijer asked if they were ready for the swine flu and the mother nodded and continued to walk out. After regaining my composure and laughing at this sight, I realized how ridiculous this hysteria has become.

The media has gotten into people’s heads. No matter what media source you use, you will find stories about swine flu.

Like the average seasonal flu, 36,000 people will die from complications from the flu and 90 percent of those will be older than age 65. Just like the regular flu, preexisting respiratory conditions will be the cause of most deaths. The rest will be caused by pneumonia in the elderly due to long periods of inactivity in the hospital.

The swine flu is no different in the effects it will have on the public as a whole. That effect is a pain in the ass. That’s all. It will cause some to be hospitalized, but no more than the seasonal flu. Yet we run around as if it will kill half of us.

The media and government are using this to distract us while the government slowly strips us of our rights and liberties. Sure, call it a crackpot theory, but it is not just the swine flu.

The media often drowns us with coverage of the same exact things for weeks. For example, the death of Michael Jackson. I need not go further into saying the media over-covered and shoved this down our throats so much so that I honestly do not like Michael Jackson anymore. Every time I hear a Michael Jackson song I cringe and think of the countless hours of coverage to assure us over and over that he was in fact dead and that he was a big star.

The purpose of this column is not to knock you as an individual for your concern about swine flu, it is to show you how the media can take something and make it into a much bigger issue than it is. The drive for ratings and attention causes them to sensationalize everything to keep you chained.

For our own sake, let’s keep things in perspective. Do not let the media guide your mind.

Eric Thieleman is a State News guest columnist and political science senior. Reach him at thielem4@msu.edu.