Post-News Year: paranormal stories everywhere – genuinely more activity or just media attention?

Right, I've noticed something in the past three months since all those government UAP disclosures and media coverage ramped up. Paranormal reports are absolutely everywhere. UFO sightings, cryptid encounters, hauntings - the forums here are busier than they've been in years, local Facebook groups are going mental with reports, even the traditionally sceptical UK subreddits are having to admit something's shifted in the conversation.

The question I'm wrestling with is: is there actually more paranormal activity happening, or has the media coverage and government acknowledgement just made people feel brave enough to report what they've always been experiencing?

My gut feeling is it's 70% increased confidence in reporting (people feel less mad saying 'I saw a UFO' when the BBC has covered it), 30% actual increase in genuine activity. But I might be completely wrong. Maybe the increased reports are generating some kind of 'attention energy' that's attracting more activity? Sounds mad but stranger things have been theorised.

What do people think? Are we living through a genuine spike in paranormal phenomena or are we just more aware of it?

Definitely more people willing to report things. I've had four separate conversations with mates in the past month who've said 'I saw something weird years ago but never said anything because I'd sound mental.' Now they're mentioning it because it feels safer. So you're getting historical reports mixed with new ones and it looks like activity's exploded.

Maybe the increased reports are generating some kind of 'attention energy' that's attracting more activity? Sounds mad but stranger things have been theorised.

Actually doesn't sound mad. Collective attention is a thing. If more people are looking up at the sky, more people will see things. Some will be explainable, some won't be. Whether the non-explainable ones are *caused* by the attention or just more visible because of it, who knows.

I'd bet money it's mostly the first thing - increased reporting confidence. But I'm not going to dismiss the second possibility entirely. We don't understand enough about consciousness and collective awareness to rule anything out completely.

Your 70/30 estimate seems reasonable. Though I'd add a third factor: social media algorithms. If you engage with one paranormal post, your feed fills up with them. So people see loads of reports and assume there's an epidemic, which makes them more likely to report their own experiences. It's circular.

What would be useful is if someone did a proper analysis of reports from, say, 2015-2020 versus 2021-2024. Control for population growth, internet usage increases, all that. Actually measure whether activity has increased or if it's just *visibility* that's increased. But that would require access to historical data that probably doesn't exist in an organised way.