Article Analysis: The New York Times Article Area 51 Raid: They Come in Peace, So Far, in Search for Aliens
The New York Times Article “Area 51 Raid: They Come in Peace, So Far, in Search for Aliens” By Nicholas, Bogel-Burroughs explains the Area 21 raid that was discussed all throughout social media which caused the government to worry, ultimately ended with a whimper. In late June, college student Matty Roberts created an event on Facebook called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” which was scheduled to take place on September 20th at 3 am in Amargosa Valley in Nevada.
The Facebook page stated, “We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry. If we naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Let’s see them, aliens.” About two million people signed up to participate, which started causing concern about whether this was a joke or if 2 million people were actually going to raid Area 51. Area 51 is a well-protected and mysterious military site, with signs cautioning trespassers that if they were to trespass there can be harsh consequences, like jail time. Bogel-Burroughs explains how “Air Force spokeswoman warned in July that trying to get into the off-limits area would be “dangerous.” (Bogel-Burroughs) This restricted area causes suspicion among many Americans who wonder if aliens are really held within the guarded walls. Matty, being one of those suspicious Americans, created the Facebook event as a joke, but this caused the government to worry about the ones who took this event seriously. It took social media by storm, with post after post about Area 51 memes. As the months slowly came around, the special date, September 20th rolled around and many people completely forgot about the “raid”; it was not as intense as people speculated it to be, it was actually very calm.
Bogel-Burroughs explains how even though the number of people who showed up was very small, “the celebratory crowd, some of whom wore tin foil hats, chanted about aliens and admired the cuteness of a dog that accompanied a man wearing camouflage.” (Bogel-Burroughs) I believe that Area 51 had many good and bad aspects. One positive thing that arose was the community of people over social media that bonded over the very humorous posts, tweets, and memes. The raid brought many people together and allowed people to connect and communicate. Unfortunately, most things have negative implications.
Social media has a very powerful influence over many people. The internet users are not transparent, so it wouldn’t be surprising to find some with nefarious intent. People could see this Facebook event as genuine and take this raid seriously. Fake news causes people to believe in many things that are not true, but how would they know? People just read an article or Instagram post with no source and just assume its real and soon it starts to spread. Area 51, for instance, was a mystery to social media at first; people were very unsure if it was true, so it really worried the government about the ones who were determined to proceed with the raid, which would put them and the military site at risk. This distracts the military and government from taking care of other affairs that were much more important than a fake Facebook event. The government had to ensure they took care and spread the message that there should be no intervention of the public with Area 51 affairs.
In the future, foreign powers can use this as a power move and interfere with the public. If over 2 million people signed up to participate in an event that was posted with the address, some people could take advantage of this and have villainous actions. Although the Area 51 memes were a source of entertainment from many, they caused worry among the government. And how do we know, If Matty Roberts didn’t shut it down by telling the public it was a joke, people might have actually attempted to break into Area 51 causing destruction among all.
