Shock gets attention. Stories mean something.

Ever watch a music video and actually FEEL something?

The first one I remember doing that to me was Céline Dion's "It's All Coming Back to Me Now."

I was a kid with no life experience to connect it to. I just knew it felt BIG.

Fast-forward to this weekend.

It was my birthday, Taylor Swift's "Patient Zero" music video came out, and this time I understood exactly why I was crying.

I survived an abusive relationship a few years ago. I'm good now, but parts of the video hit very close to home.

Not how I planned to spend my birthday, thanks, Taylor.

After watching it (yes, I'm a Swiftie), I asked myself:

Should this video have had a trigger warning?

The more I thought about it, the more my answer was no.

Feeling something difficult doesn't automatically mean something harmed me.

Almost anything can bring back a memory. A song. A smell. A place. One random sentence.

We can't put a warning in front of every possible feeling.

So where's the line between being thoughtful and making sure nobody ever feels uncomfortable?

Online, we add trigger warnings. We use therapy language for everyday feelings. Creators say "unalive" instead of death or suicide because they're worried about moderation, reach or monetisation.

Sometimes it feels like we're scared of the words themselves.

I get it. Nobody wants to hurt people, and brand safety matters.

A 2023 meta-analysis found that trigger warnings didn't reduce emotional reactions to difficult content, but did increase anxiety beforehand.

Then there's the opposite: shock.

There was a time when "DID YOU SEE THAT?" was basically the strategy.

FCUK built a brand around a name that looked like a swear word. Britney and Madonna kissed at the VMAs and everyone talked about it.

But attention and connection aren't the same thing.

Look at Janet Jackson at the 2004 Super Bowl.

We all saw the moment. What we talked about much less was what happened to Janet afterwards.

We got the headline.

She had to live with the fallout.

Shock can get attention.

A good story can actually mean something.

That's how I think about social, content and creator strategy too.

Of course I want to know what makes someone stop.

But I also want to understand why they care. Why they come back. Why some stories stay with us for years.

Because we see ourselves in them.

Love. Loss. Fear. Hope. Heartbreak. Wanting to belong.

Taylor Swift doesn't know my story. She didn't make "Patient Zero" for me.

I brought my own life to it.

That's why it connected.

Maybe good storytelling isn't about controlling how people react.

Maybe it's about making something real enough to deserve a reaction.