The Shocking game

We would spend hours playing with Barbie dolls in their grand mansions. More hours playing at being famous top models or dedicated housewives, taking care of our rag dolls. Boys would spend whole afternoons playing marbles or football in the street. These games seem to epitomize childhood in the 1990’s. This is the period of my own infancy so sane and innocent. I cannot help thinking about that golden age whenever I see the dangerous, life-threatening “games” which the current generation chooses to amuse themselves.

It seems that this generation characterizes for finding extreme pleasure in activities that put them on the edge of death all the time. They are ready to go to any extent in order to experience the most unusual, intense and complex sensations. And what is most worrying to me is that they exceed all limits and seem to have lost the cult of life. Five minutes of new sensations take priority over our own precious existence. At first, this sensation-seeking behavior took the form of getting blind dark. However, soon afterwards, this was no longer enough and they started feeling the curiosity of taking drugs- From one single joint one party night to significantly increasing doses of marijuana or Ecstasy. Though extreme as this behavior may seem, a group teenagers found another risk-taking game.

Have you heard about ‘the shocking game’ (or ‘ahorcado’ or ‘seis nudos’)? This is a new game which is being fostered by the Internet which caused the death of 4 boys in Rosario de la Frontera, Salta. This game consists in achieving ecstasy through lack of oxygen and it’s generally played in pairs. One of the two wraps either a rope or tie around his neck until experimenting loss of consciousness. When they reach that point, his friend needs to loosen the strap around the neck just in time to avoid their friend’s death. Apparently, the exciting element is to cheat death. If they play alone, they need to tie six knots which would automatically untie as the boys jump down. If they fail to make them in the appropriate way, they die.

I find it puzzling to understand what it is that crosses their mind to play with something as sacred as life. What would be the entertainment of generations to come? I do not dare wonder about that.