Online Drinking Challenge Goes Viral Globally

Students find creative ways to participate in gameSophie MattsonTHE SANTA CLARAFebruary 27, 2014[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he new internet craze “Neknominate,” which entails posting videos showing people chugging alcoholic beverages on social media sites, has spread to Santa Clara.Neknominate, which originated in Australia, challenges people to record themselves consuming a large quantity of an alcoholic beverage. After completing the challenge, the individual often nominates friends to do an even crazier stunt involving drinking booze.Videos show participants downing entire bottles of whiskey, drinking alcohol from a toilet while in mid-air, chugging absinthe from a large funnel and even drinking beer while riding a surfboard.Santa Clara law student Sebastian Scholz, who first participated in the game a month ago after being challenged to do so by a friend, was one of the first Santa Clara students to partake.“I chugged a boot of beer, which was (equivalent to) about five or six beers,” said Scholz. “I am from Germany, so I was challenged to do so by a friend from Germany on Facebook.”Scholz said he tagged people from Santa Clara in his video, and it took about one or two weeks to spread throughout the university’s students on Facebook. Scholz said that for about a month his newsfeed was filled with Neknominate challenges.“In Germany, how it started was that you just chug a beer,” Scholz said. “In my (video), I did more than that, but I told everybody I tagged in the video that they did not have to do it. Usually people are pretty creative with chugging beer. I have seen people chug beer upside down or do Jägerbombs.”Because Neknominate challenges often include the participant carrying out stunts, such as riding horses or jumping off ledges into pools or rivers, people run the risk of not only alcohol poisoning, but additional physical injury caused by performing stunts.According to the U.K.-based news source the Independent, there have been at least five deaths so far in Britain and Ireland connected to Neknominate. Twenty-year-old Bradley Eames of Britain was found dead in his house after completing a Neknominate challenge by drinking two pints of gin mixed with tea bags. In addition, 19-year-old Jonny Byrne of Ireland jumped into a river and died after chugging a pint of alcohol.Scholz said that although he had heard about the deaths related to Neknominate, he believes that the game is not dangerous because it usually involves only chugging one glass of beer. Contact Sophie Mattson at smattson@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.