Wednesday, November 02, 2005

America's youth

I am the first one to admit I did plenty of stupid things as a kid. We took risks sometimes, but that usually meant riding two to a bike going down the street screaming "bloody murder" or climbing the tallest branch of a tree. And I know plenty of teenagers, when they get their driver's licenses, do stupid things in cars, but that has been going on pretty much since cars were invented.

But this type of behavior is beyond disturbing on so many levels, I'm not sure where to begin.

Boulder Valley school officials are worried about a new game sweeping the nation's middle schools.

It is called the "choking game" or "pass-out game" and it has resulted in at least eight deaths nationally.

The game is played by squeezing or putting pressure on another student's neck or chest to cut the flow of oxygen. It results in a feeling of lightheadedness. Once the pressure is released the player gets a brief rush after the blood flows back to the brain.

Seriously kids, where did you come up with this? Honestly, it would be better for you to smoke marijuana than to pull this kind of stunt. This is so unbelieveably stupid, there are no words to describe how stupid it is. And lets not even get into the quasi-sexual intimations at play here. Is America breeding a nation full of autoerotic aspyxiation enthusiasts?

It really saddens me. I mean, do kids need a rush this bad? Can't they just, like, stand up really, really fast? Adults enjoy that all the time. And why do kids need to go off doing things like this instead of just being kids? Being a kid was fun. Even being a teenager was fun. There are things you can do as a kid that you can't do as an adult. You don't need to waste your time coming up with asinine ways to get a rush.

I hope this is a fad that soon passes. And I hope whatever fad that replaces it isn't just as bad, or worse. Obviously, we need to pay more attention to what our children are doing. Otherwise we may not have any children to pay attention to.

4 comments:

Gia-Gina said...

This is a spin off auto erotic asphyxiation I think.

Cynthia Rae said...

What in the world will they think of next?

Cyn

Anonymous said...

I had a friend back home who, when we were 15 (I'm now 27) would be the choker. After he'd tried it of course.

Really you put people in the sleeper hold or you wrap your arms around them really really tightly and squeeze them till they go limp.

Then what happens is the person who's out would have vivid dreams for the few seconds they're passed out.

I, personally, have never tried this and he almost tried to do it on my little sister who was 10 at the time and I lost my shit and told him that if he so much as came near her I'd kick him in the nuts. But he did it on our 10 year old boy neighbor... it was creepy. Can't believe kids are still doing it.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'm the same age as Muffy, and we were doing that in middle school. Its the kind of thing where most people do it once and have the sense not to do it again, but some kids get off on doing dumb things. Still, I'd rather them be doing this than playing chicken, or laying down on a busy road, or those other dumb things kids do.