VietNamNet Bridge - The fact that some young people are spending more time online than in real life has become a real threat as they are building a life on the Internet, particularly Facebook, that is far different from their real lives or personality.

A man in HCM City burned himself for just “40,000 likes”.

When young people build illusions on social networks, they let the virtual world affect their mind and lives.

Local media recently reported several typical cases of how online life affected young people in Vietnam.

To attract attention of Facebookers, a young man in HCM City burned himself and jumped into a canal to attract “likes” on his Facebook and a Hanoi girl pretended to be dead. A young man pretended to be a rich guy to cheat girls on Facebook.

Among the examples, the man who burned himself for just “40,000 likes” was considered the most extreme.

This man posted his portrait on his Facebook page with the status: "If this picture gets 40,000 likes, I will pour gasoline on my body and burn myself and then jump into Tan Hoa Canal. Let’s share this to have something good to see!"

After just one day, this picture had hundreds of thousands of “likes”. Of course, the visitors only thought that he boasted to be famous online.

The guy named N.T. also posted a photo of the place where he would burn himself. He wrote that he would perform at 7pm on September 20.

Hundreds of people flocked to the site to see the “performance” but he did not show up. Police had to disperse the crowd.

At about 11pm of the same day, a video clip featured a man who burned himself and jumped into the Tan Hoa Canal. The man in the clip is believed to be the man named N.T.

It was reported that many curious people gathered at the site, N.T waited until 11pm to fulfill his “promise” and asked his friend to film the act.

N.T believed that his act proved the“strong will of a true man”.

Some Facebookers responded to N.T’s crazy act and they launched an online movement called “Noi la lam” (Do what you say).

In just a few days, “Noi la lam” became the most popular slogan on social networks in Vietnam. Netizens released increasingly bizarre and dangerous challenges to attract “likes”. 

For example, a man announced on his Facebook that once he gets 10,000 “likes,” he would give a music video of himself as a gift. Another facebooker promised to present phone cards as gifts to those who gave him “likes”. A girl stated she would drink 69 liters of honey after having enough number of “likes”.

More dangerously, some said they would post their “sex clips”, jump into a polluted canal, kill a pet… after they collected the number of “likes” they needed.

The Like button on Facebook has become the reason for young people to “compete” with each other to prove themselves as a“hot Facebooker”.

Experts said that some young people are trying to prove themselves on social networks rather than in real life. Their lives are dependent on cyber life while they are lonely in the real one.

Young people need guidance about this matter, they said.

Khuyen Bui