I can’t believe this is my first post as it seems like a totally arbitrary topic, but this has captured my full attention for the past two hours and I feel like I should write about this.
People who know me in person would all agree that I am one individual with many layers, if not too many. I can be a clown in front of basic teenagers but I can also engage in philosophical debates with strangers whom I find interesting. Little did anyone know, this boy with an innocent smile is in love with dark fantasies.
There was a time I used to chat with a woman whose name was, if I remember correctly, Camilla, who loved S&M and had a pet wolf. I was still struggling with English back then and so was she, but we would spend hours chatting about nonsense with a hint of darkness. Conversations like this filled the gap within me that couldn’t be filled otherwise with happiness or innocence. Only the most socially unacceptable desires can give me the guilty pleasure, and she was the one provider that I longed for. But soon our friendship slowly came to an end when I began to find her flow of thoughts boring and I got distracted by other “normal” things.
Back to the present.
I haven’t been able to find any eye-catching unsolved mysteries lately. The last time was, wow, six months ago when I was drawn by the whole discovery of deep web. It was truly an eye-widening untouched domain; well, it was for the first two or three days of my research, until I realized it was but another less-surfaced area where waste and illegal activities are prone to aggregate. You know, just like that dodgy alley behind the church where Lil’ Tiger would try to convince you to buy some low-quality cocaine mixed with flour and broken glass. But this is basically it- not as out-of-the-world as you thought it would be.
It was until I found this challenge called the Blue Whale Challenge. Technically it isn’t an underground activity anymore as the media is already all over it. It is believed to be a real fifty-day challenge originated from Russia where kids go from silly tasks to self-harm and eventually taking their own lives on the fiftieth and last day. According to the Russian media, the game/ challenge has claimed about 100 lives in 2015 and 2016, and apparently it is slowly spreading to Europe and the USA.
First of all, Russia never seizes to surprise me. I would love to visit this country one day but there’s something about me that will get me killed if I am to set foot on it without thorough preparation. Second, it kind of challenges the myth that kids are having a reduced attention span under the spread of social media and Internet in general. Imagine waiting anxiously and biting your nails for hours for the next task that will not be assigned until another 24 hours have passed by. No matter how strong the adrenaline rush is, you are going to wait for another 24 hours, and then yet another 24, for 50 days. I, for one, would not have the courage to commit to such a challenge for fifty days straight, simply because I am an impatient being.
Given the twisted mind that I have, sadly but undeniably I will still go great lengths to contact the game host to give this game a try. I am not sure how many levels I will have completed before I complain, “hey this is too sick/ pointless.” I am sort of a gamer myself but I have never had the urge to become the best player in the game or even just one of the servers. This game may not successfully convince me to win the game; but still, I would love to add this to the list of fun games that I started off with a passion but never finished.
I await you, the game of whales.
Update: the game host of this challenge has been identified and arrested in Russia. The kids who are still playing this game will be safe- until the next mastermind picks it up.
