The first (and only) time I saw the old MTV show Jackass, I figured society was in bigger trouble than I’d thought. Sure, the show’s producers posted disclaimers at the bottom of the screen (Yo! Don’t try this stupidity at home!) and host Steve-O would warn viewers not to be, well, stupid. After all, he was a professional moron. But a teenage boy’s temptation to emulate cool-looking idiocy that might garner high school infamy is more powerful than Earth’s gravitational pull.
I wondered how long it would be until we saw an increase in injuries among viewers.
Sure enough, after Jackass, a slew of knock-off programming and, perhaps especially, the invention of YouTube (aka stupid human tricks gone insanely viral), doctors and child specialists say teens now face peer pressure to perform dangerous stunts and dares and post them online, according to The New York Times.
Just look at the New Jersey kid who filled his bathtub full of firecrackers, put on what he thought was protective clothing, set up a video camera to record the stunt and then lit up the entire room and himself. He was lucky to have burns over only 14% of his body. And this is but one of countless stupid exploits YouTube viewers are watching and doctors around the country are mopping up.
And to think that back in the ’50s my father thought it was risky-cool to throw a single M-80 into a lonely Wyoming cow field.
Based on the reckless, just plain moronic irresponsibility featured on YouTube and Facebook today, one wonders how much further stakes will climb in the post Steve-O world. Teen’s natural narcissism has been blown up (often literally) into a belief that the entire world is fascinated by whatever they’re posting online. Based on the number of YouTube and Facebook hits some stunts get, many of them may be right.
Yo! So much for disclaimers.
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