A Joke Can Kill You

by Jiin, Lee

Have you heard about the game which is called ‘Neknominate’? This game which is oriented in Australia is that people drink enormous amounts of alcohol or drink strange concoction of different kinds of rum or cocktail, and then nominate their friends and ask them to outdo themselves. The nominated people should accept the challenge. If they refuge the challenge, they would be ridiculed by people.

The problem is that this game is lethal. Based on CNN, 5 men under 30 years old died because of this game. Doctors say that drinking a lot in a very short time is really harmful to our bodies and it can lead to the death. Especially, the mixed alcohol is more dangerous. Also, some people mix odd things such as dog foods, engine oil, gold fish, insect, and a dead mouse with alcohol; this is lethal toxic to our bodies.

However, this crazy game is spread all over the world through the social networks such as Facebook and Youtube. Due to the fact that social networks are so open cyber space, if the nominated people don’t accept the challenge, they are made fun of in public, and this makes people accept the challenge even though they don’t want to do that. Some people expected this situation would fizzle out but it didn’t. Rather, it is spread out very quickly through the social networks. 

So some people contend that schools have a responsibility about this trend and they have to teach the students how to deal with the peer pressure, and they also maintain that Facebook has a responsibility about this issue to some extent, so Facebook has to take a right action to stop this situation. However, Facebook says that they don’t permit people to post violent message like bullying but they cannot block people to post every contents that is unpleasant or controversial. They encourage people to report any posting which is opposed to the Facebook’s rule, but except that, there is nothing they can do for this issue.

From my opinion, I think both schools and social networks have a responsibility on this trend. Although children start this kind of games for fun at first, it can be evolved to bullying. Especially, if this kind of games is shown in public, children feel more pressure and stress. So, they cannot help accepting the challenge and it leads to another children’s torture. Therefore, schools should teach students how awful this kind of games are, how it can bring terrible effects, and how to deal with peer pressure. Also, social networks should take an action to stop this trend and prevent it. Unfortunately, there have been 5 men who died due to the ridiculous game. There is not a moment to lose.

 

Neknominate: 'Lethal' drinking game sweeps social media By Peter Wilkinson and Isa Soares, CNN (02/18/14)

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/18/world/europe/neknominate-drinking-game/index.html?hpt=hp_t1