Article Category:
The Lighter Side
Do you Fear Public Speaking Death?
It turns out that your public speaking phobias and fears are unwarranted.
Web comic xkcd has charted the number of deaths from numerous activities, but no public speaking deaths have been reported.
As I write this, Google searches demonstrate that public speaking is a non-life threatening activity. All of these return zero results:
- “died in a public speaking accident”
- “died in a speaking accident”
- “died in a presentation accident”
- “died in a PowerPoint accident”
- “died in a Toastmasters accident”
On the other hand, two people have apparently died in a blogging accident, so subscribing to my blog via RSS or email may be risky business…
- “died while reading Six Minutes”: 0 results
But, I think you’re safe.
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5 Comments
I guess I like to live dangerously, I blog, and ride a motorcycle. Not at the same time though, I’m not that much of a thrill seeker.
I love these facts. Every once in awhile a new study comes out showing that more Americans are afraid of public speaking than they are of dying. Once, when I was a young, deer-in-the-headlights fledgling speaker, such a study appeared on the front page of the Denver Post. That morning I followed a speaker who began his talk saying that he was nervous speaking to so many people but it did console him to know that most of the people in the audience would rather be dead than up on the platform where he was….
Have you ever noticed that the anticipation of pain that we think my result from a certain action is generally much worse than the actual experience? Here’s an example, if you’ve ever done any public speaking it’s usually the 10 or 15 minutes before you get on stage that creates the greatest anxiety. You may experience an increased heart rate, a rise in body temperature and a nauseous feeling in your stomach. All this is caused by your estimation of what the experience will be like, not by the actual experience.
Just don’t get too close to the edge of the stage. . .
I wonder how many people have ever feared they were going to die while watching a Powerpoint presentation?