STORY BY CATARINA MUIA
Social media has given drinking games a sickening new twist.
The international drinking game, ‘NekNomination,’ which originated in Australia, consists of drinking an alcoholic beverage while adding an unsafe twist, such as adding urine to the drink or jumping into a lake afterwards.
The person would then nominate some else to do the same within 24 hours, and post the video of their nomination on social media.
Nancy Coulson is a nurse at Guelph General Hospital and said that already, an average of three to four college/university students come to the hospital on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday night completely intoxicated.
“I don’t think people understand how dangerous it is, getting really drunk like that,” said Coulson.
She believes that now, with a social media spin on a drinking game, it could make things worse.
“All eyes are watching now, people want to show they’re ‘cool’ enough to handle this kind of thing,” said Coulson, “but really, it can lead to serious problems.”
Students at Sheridan also believe the game is heading down a dangerous slope.
Nick Soham, a 21-year-old first-year student in the Advertising and Marketing Communications – Management program, at the Trafalgar campus, believes that the NekNomination videos are unnecessary.
“I just think it’s incredibly stupid for people to put themselves through that,” said Soham.
He remembered one of the videos he saw involving a girl who drank two beers, stripped down to her bikini, jumped into the ice-cold water, then got out and drank a whole bottle of Crown Royal.
“What pushes people to do this kind of thing? And I’m pretty sure there have been two people who have died from this already,” said Soham.
On Feb. 10, Mirror News reported that four boys from the U.K. and Ireland have died playing the game, and many people are trying to send the message that the NekNominations need to stop.
There are plenty of people who have been nominated to play, but instead of ‘necking’ a drink, they’ve found a way to put a positive spin on the game.
Connor Lamoureux from Uxbridge, Ont., is an 18-year-old first-year student at Western University, who posted his video on Feb. 4.
In the video, he is seen donating cans to a children’s charity with hopes to “make a difference,” Lamoureux said in an email interview.
“It was my inner hipster that drove me to make my neknom video,” he said. “I figured that posting a video of me downing alcohol in some extreme manner was too mainstream.”
Instead, Lamoureux wanted to do something that would impact someone’s life, no matter how big or small, knowing that it would be more rewarding than “any amount of beer, raw eggs or hard liquor can achieve.”
Within two hours after posting the video on Facebook, it received more than 100 likes and positive comments like “This just made my day,” or, “So inspiring to see.”
Lamoureux also nominated a few of his friends to “spread the goodness and inspire others to do the same.”
After seeing a similar video to Lamoureux’s, 18-year-old Jovan Sharqawi, a first-year in the Computer Programmer program at Trafalgar, said, “That was so sweet, it’s a way better thing to do. Instead of killing your liver, pay it forward.”