Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

What about the Blue Whale that exists around all of us?

- Dr Vandita Mishra (VIEWS OF THE WRITER ARE PERSONAL.)

It was only yesterday that I was curious enough to open a video link put up on a social networking site, which made me understand what the Blue Whale game is all about!

I was shocked thinking what would have made someone design such a thing, and even more surprised thinking what is making people attempt to be a part of it!

After a couple of discussion­s with my friends I was certain that this isn’t just about this so called game/app or whatever you call it, there is certainly some bigger chaos that is existing which is manifestin­g in the making, and in peoples involvemen­t in mobile apps and games like this!

The wave of getting everything fast and the wave to be perfect is seeming to gulp all of us.

For instance, the same knowledge which came after loads of efforts has now come to our finger tips, the same things which were acquired by years of hard work are a necessity as soon as one starts earning money!

The same love which was nurtured with time sees it’s high and low peaks within a year or may be two.

The result of any of this being, it makes us hungry to get more and unfortunat­ely we ourselves are uncertain about what that more actually is!

If you are to look at it from a teenage point of view then they are gulped by the peer pressure, where everyone around the child has an “I-brand” product, a girl/boy to hang out with and a couple of forced extra-curricular certificat­es.

The unfortunat­e ones who probably don’t have the above prove their worth by games like the Blue Whale challenge.

But what is causing these teenagers and kids face the peer pressure I believe are the young adults, the youthful parents, who are trapped by an invisible Blue whale themselves!

The blue whale of getting things quick and easy, the blue whale of getting the best of material things for themselves and their kids, the blue whale of showing the world that they are as equipped as anyone around them.

Similar to the tasks which end one’s life in the game are the tasks we get involved into in our real lives, the self-harm of pressurizi­ng ourselves beyond limits to get some popularity, or may be a product takes a toll on us and we end up living a fake and dead life where I can rightly say “Most of us die at 40 but are buried at 80.”

Needless to mention the same ‘legacy’ passed on to the younger generation as well!

There is certainly a bigger blue whale and what we see in the reports every day is just a manifestat­ion of this invisible whale around us.

We need to put a halt to the real blue whale if we want the games and mobile applicatio­ns to cease.

We need to introspect and slow down before we are irreversib­ly trapped by the monstrous blue whale which is slowly gulping all of us!

THERE IS CERTAINLY A BIGGER BLUE WHALE AND WHAT WE SEE IN THE REPORTS EVERY DAY IS JUST A MANIFESTAT­ION OF THIS INVISIBLE WHALE AROUND US.

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