Earlier, I expressed my fear that a steady stream of cute cat videos on YouTube was killing global productivity. Now, I’m beginning to wonder whether it might start killing off our kids. At the end of July Shah Faisal Shinwari, a popular YouTube vlogger (‘video blogger’), had to be fished out of the Thames having jumped off Tower Bridge. He hit the surface hard, gulped several mouthfuls of dirty water and was nearly swept downriver. He only survived because he dragged himself to the side where rescuers could pump the so-called water from his lungs and stomach. This ‘dare’ was uploaded to YouTube for the world to watch.
I won’t be the first to think ‘what an idiot’, or wonder about the intelligence of Shinwari and the 30,000-odd people who subscribe to his channel. But I do have to wonder if this is where our social media world is heading - to a place where the surest way to make your mark is risk your life. I don’t blame YouTube. Google has no interest in encouraging young people to kill themselves; you can’t gather data and flog them advertising when they’re dead. Yet YouTube has created the world’s finest public forum for morons.
Shinwari is just the tip of an idiocy iceberg. In June, a San Diego man was killed by a moving freight train while attempting to roll underneath it - apparently a YouTube stunt gone wrong. Several Russian vloggers have also met their end on moving trains. It turns out that when you’re hanging out of a carriage or surfing on the top, you really do need to watch out for those tunnels.
Some YouTube pranksters pick the wrong target. British vlogger, Jack Jones, kept his followers amused by jumping into strangers’ cars and filming what happened. Stupidly, Jones took his act Stateside, where the targets have a nasty tendency to pack a gun. It’s well worth watching the video, just to see Jones panic as it all goes wrong: www.snipca.com/17576. Ditto for two ‘crazy’ Czech YouTubers, who had a classy gag pretending to relieve their bowels on luxury cars in the US. They even used their own plastic faeces. This isn’t a great idea in a country where the owner’s might have tasers and a temper.
I’m not so worried about the YouTube daredevils and pranksters - it’s their life, and if they want to end it shot, crushed, splattered or drowned in the pursuit of momentary fame, then that’s their look-out. I do worry, though, about the various dumb, impressionable souls who imitate them. In 2013, a man died trying to swing through a sandstone arch in Utah, copying a YouTube video that had racked up some 18 million views. In June this year, a 47-year-old man from Oakland, California died while holding a firecracker to his head, again aping some YouTube stunt.
Meanwhile, wave after wave of stupid challenges have spread around the world, ranging from the cinammon challenge (swallow a spoonful of ground cinnamon in less than a minute without water - possible side effects include vomiting and inhaling burning powder) to the ice bucket challenge (pour salt on skin, place ice on top, enjoy third-degree bums). I’ve actually seen people I know on Facebook - men and women in their forties - doing ‘Neknomination’ challenges, where you pick some ridiculous cocktail then dare a friend to down it in one.
I know what you’re thinking. There have always been stupid thrill-seeking kids, and is this really any different from running across the railway lines or playing ‘chicken’ on the dual carriageway - both favourite pursuits of buffoons when I was young?
Yet the lure of that 15 minutes of YouTube fame has a wider reach and a more pernicious grasp. Some people will go to great lengths to prove to the world how stupid they are.