Have you ever heard of the Butterfly Effect? If not, it’s a concept theorizing that small causes can affect bigger events in the future. For example, carelessly throwing a cigarette onto the ground can cause a massive fire, which could endanger animals, families, and change the way people go to work.  Then, this could lead to financial issues for the government and its citizens. Farrah Selim, Luke Vazquez, and Jasmine Hickok gave their interesting opinions on the Butterfly Effect in May at WMS.

Selim is aware of the Butterfly Effect. She thinks people should know more about this because it is a “serious” thing. When asked why Selim thinks some people started to acknowledge this effect, she said, “They don’t want it to affect people’s lives”.  Selim would like to learn more about this effect because she wants to know why they named it “Butterfly Effect”.  She also suspects the Butterfly Effect happened with our first president George Washington. She said, “George Washington led America and without him we wouldn’t have our country”.

“Your actions have consequences,” Vazquez said when asked if he thinks more people should be aware of this effect.  His opinion on the Butterfly Effect is he feels like it is real.  An example he gave was if Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t preaching, there would still be segregation and more racism.  Vazquez thinks that some people started to acknowledge this effect, because they wanted to prove that your actions have consequences. He wants to research this a bit to see how it affects people.  Another example Vazquez gave us was “If you throw a bottle into the ocean, it will kill fish and go into a whale’s blowhole”.

Hickok believes that the Butterfly Effect is “scary” saying,  “You make one wrong mistake and everything can change”.  Hickok thinks more people should know about this effect because it’s all up to the decision maker.  She also believes that some people started to learn more about this effect because it’s “interesting”.  When asked when in history Hickok thinks the Butterfly Effect happened she said, “I think a car made a wrong turn and John F. Kennedy also had a back brace. Without those things he wouldn’t have been shot”.

Each individual gave their own unique answers that grow new possibilities for the Butterfly Effect.  This is a theory that should be explored further so citizens can have answers for their future.  If there’s anything that should’ve been learned from this article it’s that your actions have consequences, which is what Vazquez said.