After being viral for a month in Western countries such as the UK, the USA and Germany, the notorious drinking game called Neknominate has finally reached Hungary. No day goes by now without seeing at least one of our friends posting a video of drinking beer and saying names to continue a chain of fast alcohol consumption for the sake of fun, friendship, challenge, boredom and God knows what else. Although, so far, the Hungarian version of the game remains moderate enough, it is useful to raise awareness of its disadvantages, and to say a few words about the events that have occurred in other countries in connection with Neknominate.
This online drinking game involves a person downing a certain amount of alcohol and posting a video of the act on a preferred social network (Facebook, YouTube or Twitter). The procedure also calls for naming two or three friends who have to complete the proposed challenge within 24 hours, thus making the game a never-ending chain. If those nominated decide not to answer the nomination or fail to complete the challenge within 24 hours, then they owe a carton of beer to the nominator.
There are various rumours about how the game exactly came to life. Some say it started in Perth, Australia, others are convinced that it was invented by a London Irish rugby player, Ross Samson. Whatever the truth, Neknominate has become a worldwide phenomenon attracting the attention of millions, now including we Hungarians as well. So far we seem to play according to the “original” rules, when the player has to drink a pint of beer, and it appears that people enjoy the game.
“I believe it can actually be fun within a small community,” says Zsófi Holman, a student of ELTE. “At first I thought it was kind of a dumb game but then I saw people come up with quite creative solutions. Some of the videos are really impressive.”
However, when I ask Holman whether she knows about the tragedies that have happened lately in connection with Neknominate, she shakes her head. Without trying to panic anyone (or give ideas), I have to say that unfortunately not many Hungarians know that this online game has turned out to be extremely dangerous, and even lethal, in certain cases.
On 22 February BBC News reported five deaths in the UK that could be associated with Neknominate. The problem is that players attempting to be cooler than others sometimes change the rules and replace the beer with pints of spirits such as vodka or gin. Going even further, others pour different drinks together to make a disgusting “cocktail” and then drink it.
Either way when such a large amount of hard alcohol gets into someone’s digestive system in such a short amount of time it can cause very serious damage to the body, and in extreme cases, death. The danger of the game lies in the fact that the target audience is the generation of young adults in their twenties, more often males, who may or may not be aware of the unwritten rules of reasonable alcohol consumption, and tend to overestimate their tolerance.
Also, this generation is very susceptible to peer pressure that can be enhanced by the presence of social networks. For this reason, the Local Government Association in the UK has urged Facebook and Twitter to introduce warnings. Others have suggested that the networks should oversee and delete Neknominate videos that can encourage reckless action.
Facebook said in response: “We do not tolerate content which is directly harmful, for example bullying, but behaviour which some people may find offensive or controversial is not always necessarily against our rules. We encourage people to report things to us which they feel breaks our rules so we can review and take action on a case by case basis.” In addition to this, it may be debatable whether the supervision of personal videos in this case would be considered an invasion of privacy. Therefore, the problem remains unresolved.
But turning to the brighter side, there are people who use the attention they get from the game for good purposes. For example, a 23-year-old Frenchman called Julien Voinson was challenged to drink a pint of an alcoholic beverage in 24 hours. Voinson, however, instead of doing the gag, decided to alter the game and posted a video of him handing out food to homeless people in his area. He then nominated three of his friends to do the same, creating a new game that people named SmartNominate. Voinson believes that Neknominate does not show a good example to the younger generations, so he tried to change it his own way. This instance shows that these online games do not necessarily turn out to be wrong in every case.
Nevertheless, when we are just looking at our news feed it is definitely worth a shot to watch some videos and see our friends come up with something hilarious. If we decide to take a look at YouTube, the offer of Neknominate videos gets even bigger: some show a guy downing a beer while surfing, the other drinks it through the barrel of a gun, and another sends the pint down wearing a bra and holding a chicken. This huge variety of videos ranges from impressive and funny through shocking and crazy to insane and disgusting. The choice is ours which version of the game we like and, maybe, play.
Telling people not to play it would probably be useless because it is already booming here. But it might be beneficial to stay cautious and keep ourselves within reasonable boundaries. And if we decide to take some friend’s challenge, it can still be useful to ask ourselves: would I do this thing if I didn’t have to make a video of it?
