Unknominate: One jumps in front of a passing train drinking an unknown drink through a straw, another surfs while downing a beer, another defecates in a glass, which is then filled with beer and drinks (!) another downs his drink and jumps off a bridge to sea, ένας άλλος σκαρφαλώνει ένα δέντρο πίνοντας κι από διαφορετικό ποτό σε κάθε κλαδί. Δεν έχουν τελειωμό τα βίντεο που μπορεί κάποιος να βρει στο youtube στο λήμμα «neknominate", The new online drinking game that has been sweeping over the past few months in the US and Britain (with legitimate fears that it will reach our places ...).
In short, players are asked to drink a mono drink, while doing something dangerous, filming this madness and uploading it to the Internet (mainly on Facebook) after they have caused two other friends to do the same in less than 24 hours. It reminds of the popular ice bucket challenge, but instead of being bathed by the bucket, they drink it, and it is not for a noble purpose, as in the other case it was funding the research for the ALS (the rare disease that suffers from Steven Hawking). Instead, articles link the game to five deaths of people under the age of 30 in England and Ireland, including a London hotel worker who consumed a bottle of white wine, a fourth whiskey bottle, a small bottle of vodka and a beer can.
Although drinking games are as old as humans and alcohol, their proliferation in the age of social networks is almost uncontrollable. Neknominate sprung up on Australia at the beginning of 2014 and very quickly through Facebook he switched to countries with high rates of alcoholism. Almost simultaneously, another similar binge drinking game (Baijiu Challenge), in which users are also asked to reveal their feat online, became popular in China. However, when Facebook was asked not to allow the posting of videos and content in general with the hashtag #neknominate, the platform issued a statement that "we do not tolerate content that is directly harmful, such as bullying, but behavior that some may find offensive or controversial is not necessarily against our rules." However, they invited users not to hesitate to report posts on the platform that they consider to be inappropriate.
According to experts, the "disguise" of alcohol use in play can have very negative effects, especially among the young population. The data on the problematic consumption of the substance among children in our country are already worrying. According to WHERE, 30% of teenagers in Greece state that they drink an alcoholic beverage once or twice a week. The average age for boys to start drinking is 11 and for girls 13, while around 20% of teenagers admit to getting drunk more than three times in a year. In all three of the leading causes of death among 14-24 year olds, which are car accidents, suicides and murders, alcohol is highly involved.
The highest rates of frequent drinking (≥10 times) last month in pupils (13-19 years) are observed in the prefectures of Kastoria, Pieria, Evros, Halkidiki, Serres and Lesvos.
Source: kathimerini.gr
