By Maximilian Moore
NekNomination is dead. It quietly left our Facebook newsfeeds as Kony 2012 once did, as Coke and Mentos and ‘I Can Has Cheezeburger Cat’ once left. The sensationally annoying Fred Figglehorn luckily never said goodbye, and I believe Nigahiga has more pretty friends now. Social media phenomenons are plagued by the brevity the generation’s attention span. Facebookers, Tweeters, Snappers and Googlers are now finished with NekNominations; its novelty, like Jason Russel’s bewildering streak of fame, is kaput.
For those older readers, or younger readers who live under large boulders, NekNomination is an act of misconduct taken part (usually) by those of the voting age and above. It’s two parts drinking dizzying amounts of booze, one part post-shame, and one part outrageous and daringly sexy acts of self-worth. There’s plenty of naked people, happy people and people in pain. Sometimes the intensity isn’t dissimilar to soft-core porn, and sometimes you can’t stand watching more than 10 seconds – shut up, do something stupid. The participants nominate their friends to continue the fad. Recycled tomfoolery.
Students in Algonquin residence are privy to the drink in the privacy of their dorms surrounded by friends and partners. This seemingly fan-fangled act of drinking booze is in some cases followed by spectacular ramifications. In the cases of young adults dying to stunts they’ve performed for Facebook likes in a NekNomination, they’re simply subject to Darwin’s teachings of natural selection.
For the rest of us, drinking at the ages of 18 and up are just more things we do in life, like sex and food. NekNomination took us by storm and left without a trace because we do these behind closed doors anyways. But how most social phenomena are exciting and gripping, their ephemerality is swift, and as kids say, the good times will roll.