Why GoPro footage is so 'terrifying' as man drops camera off cruise ship
There’s a reason why viewers have been seriously freaked out by a man dropping his GoPro to the bottom of the ocean.
Odysseas Froilan posted a creepy video on his YouTube channel in 2021, which starts with him chucking his GoPro off a cruise ship in the Bahamas as it tumbles into the depths of the sea.
After settling onto the seabed, the GoPro then moves around to show what life is like for the creatures that inhabit the bottom of the ocean.
Things get a lot more interesting when the clip cuts to the night time footage.
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Not only does the darkness add a certain eeriness, several sharks swim past the camera.
Viewers, without realising it, were likely to be experiencing something known as thalassophobia.
“The way I went from kicking my feet in the air at the cute fishies and thinking ‘maybe the ocean isn’t so scary after all’ in the day footage to blankly staring, terrified, at the night footage, further confirming my intense fear of the ocean,” one person commented.
Another wrote: “Man, there's something primally terrifying about seeing a shark emerge from the darkness like that.”
What is thalassophobia?
“Individuals [with thalassophobia] will express worries such as what is beneath the water, darkness under the water, dangers in the water, and being lost,” Krystal Lewis, PhD, a psychologist in private practice in Bethesda, Maryland, told WebMD.
It can occur from a traumatic experience, such as nearly drowning in the ocean, Albers adds.
“This is an example of classical conditioning, where a specific experience teaches the brain to associate water with fear,” she explains.
“This kind of learning is called observational learning, and it can shape our emotional responses even without direct experience.”
Thalassophobia can also stem from a fear of the unknown or things you can’t control, adds David Kupfer, PhD, a psychologist in private practice in Falls Church, Virginia.
For such, ‘the ocean might seem like it was potentially full of scary and unpredictable troubles’, Kupfer says.
Explaining the rigmarole that's involved with dropping a GoPro off the side of a cruise ship, Froilan said: "I used a GoPro case to withstand the pressure and some simple stabilisers that I made in order to prevent the rolling of the camera. For the same reason, I was waiting for a day with no wind and current. The GoPro was attached to a fishing line so I was able to feel the bottom of the sea.
"But I could check the footage only once I was bringing the camera up again. Initially, I started filming to see what was happening down there, but the footage was so cool I had to share."
Topics: Cruise Ship, Travel, Health
Anish Vij