NekNomination: The viral drinking game

February 10, 2014

If you’ve logged into Facebook this month, you will most definitely have seen a ‘NekNomination’ video in your Newsfeed. In fact, it’s probably why you are reading this blog post right now…

The NekNomination trend, which is essentially Facebook chain mail, has skyrocketed in the past few weeks. A quick search for ‘NekNomination’ in Radian6 reveals a massive spike in activity, which takes off from the last week of January and peaks in 3 February. Given that Radian6 does not pull in a large portion of Facebook activity where users have non-public privacy settings, you can imagine how the volumes would shoot up if we could get a full view of the online spread.

On Facebook, there are numerous pages dedicated to the NekNomination trend. One of the largest which I stumbled upon boasted close to 18,000 fans despite having only been set up on 4 January this year! And the debate taking place on the page is a heated one. Take a look…

Post by Neknomination.

Back over on Twitter, posts mentioning the trend can be split into 2 distinct types; the media commenting on the internet craze and then the participants, sharing their ‘nekking’ successes.

But what do you make of the latest online craze? In principal I disagree with it, although I must admit that the speed and ferocity with which it has taken off does impress me somewhat. I wonder, do people feel more or less pressure to fulfill their NekNomination dare when it’s on Facebook for their entire friendship network to see…?

And is it really harmful? Or is it just a bit of fun? With the recent deaths of two boys, it does indicate that things have gone too far. Interestingly, the media have begun debating whether or not Facebook is responsible to control the NekNomination activity! Facebook doesn’t think so… A spokesperson from the social network  said “We do not tolerate content which is directly harmful, for example bullying, but controversial or offensive behaviour is not necessarily against our rules.”

What’s your view?

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