[Editor’s Note: One thing that has been made quite evident over the past several weeks is Hollywood has no problem weaponizing the audience’s fear of spoilers to their advantage. The urgency to avoid all spoilers and see Avengers: Endgame opening weekend, when studios make the most money on each ticket sold, pushed it to break box office records. Game of Thrones similarly saw record numbers of people watching each episode of its final season right when it aired lest the latest character death be spoiled on Twitter.
The word “spoil” is just another way to say ruin, and the idea that a film, or tv show, or game is spoiled for you means that the ultimate experience is ruined. Studies have shown that’s not always the case, and as Jonathan Holmes explains below, hearing a spoiler for something you’re excited about doesn’t have to be a devastating experience if you know how to properly handle it.]
I’ve been writing about video games for a little more than 10 years now, and for most of that time, I actually did something in a totally different field for a full-time job. Among other things, I’ve helped people deal with the difficult thoughts and feelings, usually stemming from unwanted life events like the loss of a loved one, the end of a relationship, and other more damaging stuff.
By those standards, an unwanted event like stumbling upon a spoiler might seem like small potatoes, but there’s no use in trying to compare one person to another. It’s more productive to try to use the strategies that help people with one kind of stress to help even more people. So that’s what I did, and I think it might have worked.
So what do spoilers have in common with more serious emotional issues like anxiety or grief? Well for starters, learning something you don’t want to know and being treated in a way that you don’t want to be treated lead to unwanted feelings. In fact, I’ve been told by plenty of people over the years that what bothers them most about spoilers is the fact that the person doing the spoiling was intentionally trying to make their lives worse, even if it’s ever so slightly.
Source: Destructoid I may have found the cure for spoilers