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The Blue Whale

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justb612

justb612

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Hello

TheBlueWhale was a Russian online achievement based game-project. A number of individuals started to spread it among sad and depressed teenagers (mostly).
The game consisted of 50 challenges, one challenge a day.
The challenges began with cutting or hurting oneself and ended up at climbing a top of the nearest highest building and jumping down.
While the teenagers were doing this, they made contact with TheBlueWhale team. There are rumors that who ever wanted to stop the game got harassed etc. The contact was usually through Skype.

My question is, what are the principles of doing the exact opposite of this?
What would be some problematic parts of it, and why do you think it would or would not work out?

I have been pondering on this for a good while now. In my opinion, the use of the internet would give us all that we need to help out different individuals (of course, if they want to help themselves...) in this regard. Mental problems are usually just a series of lifestyle events that enhance or degrade our mental well being.

In my personal experience, there are easy cheap ways that people can use (like the Wim Hof method) to try and enhance their mental well being.
Going on this route, we end up at a complex positive and healthy lifestyle that should ensure a positive well being in most cases.



Sorry if the post looks inconsistent or incomplete.
Any idea is welcome.
Thanks for reading :)
 
justB612 said:
Hello

TheBlueWhale was a Russian online achievement based game-project. A number of individuals started to spread it among sad and depressed teenagers (mostly).
The game consisted of 50 challenges, one challenge a day.
The challenges began with cutting or hurting oneself and ended up at climbing a top of the nearest highest building and jumping down.
While the teenagers were doing this, they made contact with TheBlueWhale team. There are rumors that who ever wanted to stop the game got harassed etc. The contact was usually through Skype.

My question is, what are the principles of doing the exact opposite of this?
What would be some problematic parts of it, and why do you think it would or would not work out?

I have been pondering on this for a good while now. In my opinion, the use of the internet would give us all that we need to help out different individuals (of course, if they want to help themselves...) in this regard. Mental problems are usually just a series of lifestyle events that enhance or degrade our mental well being.

In my personal experience, there are easy cheap ways that people can use (like the Wim Hof method) to try and enhance their mental well being.
Going on this route, we end up at a complex positive and healthy lifestyle that should ensure a positive well being in most cases.



Sorry if the post looks inconsistent or incomplete.
Any idea is welcome.
Thanks for reading :)
Click to expand...

I'm curious, but not sure I fully understand what you are getting at, would you care to further elaborate?

-eg
 
It seems clear to me that what justB612 is getting at is an online game where positive, life-improving challenges are set rather than the self-harm/suicide progression of TheBlueWhale.


The first challenge could be to use the 'reply' button instead of the 'quote' button 😉
 
Hmm, this is the first ive heard of this disgusting game, and there isnt much that shocks me, but that is horrible. Did anyone actually die from playing that game, i wonder. Wow, talk about preying on the weak(ened). Ugh.

That said, while the consequences of negative actions like self harm are obvious and instant, the benefits from pretty much any mental health regimen are not. People dont feel instantly better from mindfulness methods, breathing teks, etc. idk much about wim hof, but would gander it has the same limitation. Therefore daily challenges may be moot, moving from one to the next before any benefit is realized kind of defeats the purpose, and piling regimens atop one another brings obvious problems along. At lleast as far as mental health is concerned, it is best to try one thing at a time, give it time, and feel out the results. I read your OP to be about mental health, apologies if it is not.

If were talking about challenges (for example, 'do something nice for a stranger', 'tell a loved one that you care about them'' ask for a raise',' do something out of your comfort zone that benefits you' 'volunteer' are just a few i can think of off the top of my head), that are not directly focused on a regimen like wim hof, then it would indeed be interesting to see the results.

The challenges could be designed to increase a persons feelings of well being and confidence in their ability to be proactive and make positive changes through defined actions. A companion website could be integrated, outfitted with chat, or after signup sees participants being given access to a human thru skype who could help a person with the challenges or it could entirely be auto-driven. The costs associated are an issue with this, it would be nice if something like this wasnt profit driven but a real resource.

This is a cool idea, methimks, something that might be able to actually help people move forward who are stuck not realizing their full creative potential.
 
Yes a number of people died off of this, sad thing is after it got popular a few other "games" emerged on the same concept like "run or die" where you should run through a highway without getting killed but should be close to cars passing by...


The thing about mental well being is a lot so I'm gonna try and focus on certain parts here.

Social anxiety, like saying I love you to someone, or asking for a raise, depends on a number of factors.
There is a whole subreddit dedicated to NoFap, which is the concept of semen retention in order to battle social anxiety, low motivation and self esteem.

So the game could not be one sided you see. If one would truly want to battle social anxiety, one should try both NoFap and some social situational games.
All the while, they should monitor themselves to see on what level is it "helping"


On the contrary, the breathing technique from Wim Hof offers instant gratification, as it takes 1-2 minutes to finish the 30-40 breathing and you will feel the adrenaline and (?) euphoria after the ~15th breath.
Take the cold shower and you get dopamine release, and an awesome clear headed feeling.
The whole thing takes 5-15 minutes to complete.

I think Buddhism would offer a lot of solutions and a high information base for these types of games/projects.
Not sure how much it would cost, or in what way could it be done. It is exactly why i posted it on Philosophy subforum. Would love if people give it some time to ponder on it, maybe come up with some nice ideas :)
 
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