Slashdot Mirror
The Text-Your-Parents-Your-Drug-Deal Experiment
theodp writes "Having fooled major news outlets with a heartwarming-but-entirely-faked video of a pig rescuing a drowning goat, Nathan Fielder turned his attention to texting. CNET reports on the great Twitter 'text-your-parents-you're-a-drug-dealer' experiment, in which the Fielder called on his Twitter followers to text their moms and dads and (accidentally) reveal a drug deal. Fielder's tweet read: 'Experiment: text your parents "got 2 grams for $40" then right after "Sorry ignore that txt. Not for you." Then tweet pic of their response.' The reactions are various and, sometimes, hilarious."
In the United Paranoid States.
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
Now these people know that their children are morons.
News for tards. Ass that blathers.
Geeks need t' lighten up.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Why are all the screenshots from iPhones?
Android phones account for 51.2% of smartphone sales, with iPhones trailing at 43.5% [1].
So how likely is it that out of a sample of 10 screenshots, all 10 of them would be from iPhones? Seems suspicious.
[1] http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/News/Android-Sprint-and-Samsung-Increased-Share-In-Early-2013
Because encouraging kids to lie to their parents is a good thing. Causing family stress is a good thing. What a stupid idea. Kids lie enough and cause enough stress as it is.
... The FBI has dismantled a large network of drug dealers apparently led by a man named Nathan Fielder. Having failed to secure the drugs, the FBI has seized their computers instead to examine possible connections with other drug dealing groups.
I've never actually done a comment like this, where I go "Oh come on Slashdot, what is this and why is it here?"
But come on Slashdot, why is this here?
News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters.
It's time for readers to start making more good story submissions, or this is what you get. Don't complain - find a story.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
I personally have made it a point to NEVER believe any sort of screenshots I see on the internet, ESPECIALLY ones from an iPhone or really any Mobile platform. These "hilarious auto-correct mistakes", "crazy responses to accidental messages", or "super funny drunk texts" are almost always faked. There are several sites where one can create these messages in very believable looking screenshots (http://www.iphonetextgenerator.com/ for one). Why this is posted to /. as news is troubling to me.
That said, if I did that, I wouldn't EVER shake off the suspicion that I'm involved in drugs off my batshit family. I remember I had the envelope a cheapola chromatic harmonica was mailed to me in lying around, a family member misread the stuff as hormones, and suspected me of taking drugs or illicit supplements or shit. Needless to say, they couldn't understand why I felt utterly insulted by the assertion. Mind you, I was a legal adult at the time.
Why would anyone do this?
To test whether the parent assumes street drugs or precious metals. Right now, 2 grams of 18 karat scrap gold would go for about $70 according to the first calculator that I found with Google.
'I think I just ruined my mom's night,' a man from New York tweeted him back while showing a profanity-laced message from his mother who asked if he 'wanted' to go back to jail.
Seems some "kids" just got no sense.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Stupid "experiment"
to the ones who gave you life.
look extremely fake
such a good laugh. we need more funny on the internet
I've been getting ripped off!
The fact that could even think they are screen shots reveals you are an idiot.
When I first saw this I thought the premise would be to 'accidentally' text your parents from an unknown number or web service suggesting the drug deal, then seeing which parents try to take advantage of the opportunity to buy drugs.
The idea of forced rehab baffles me.
Multiple studies have shown that there's a very small chance someone will be cured of their addiction by going into rehab by force. Like ~3% or some shit. Not to mention rehab in the US is generally ineffective and expensive anyway. It's just unethical to send someone to rehab. I understand that junkies may not make the best decisions, but if they don't wanna get clean, sending them to rehab is just like sending them on vacation that they don't have to pay for.
Oh yeah, and we're talking about weed. I have no idea what weed rehab would look like...maybe hardcore 24/7 stoners could use it to ease the big life change of getting sober, but someone that smokes once in a while? It's like sentencing someone to a six weeks of 'driving school' because they forgot what side of the car their gas tank was on and had to circle around the pump.
At the worst, this is another faked-up story by the person who faked some other story, having no merits, making it completely un-funny, and effectively lowering /.'s common denominator.
At the best, it's an unfunny idea that, if it was met with participation after all, is a testament to how stupid the originator is as well as all of the people who went along with it.
I don't see how this kind of bullshit ever converges with the function of Slashdot, anywhere. Especially since its endpoints on the line of quality don't converge, either.
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
Futurama requires that you feed and clothe a shitload of honest hardworking Koreans. This just requires a few asshats.
...makes me think of punk'd, to be honest.
Remember when there were good prank shows?
When you'd have a desk clerk do a quick change act between tending to a customer and seeing them slowly wonder "wasn't she wearing a red shirt just a moment ago? Hold on, I swear she was a brunette!". Or perhaps one of the greatest pranks, switching a regular car for its UK equivalent in mere minutes, moving the person's every possession, then watch as they come back, get into 'their' car, try to start, and suddenly realize the ignition they tried to put the key in is actually thin air and wonder just wtf happened.
Now it seems it's a 'better' prank if you take the same car and bash its windows in in front of the person, then quickly run up to them with a camera in their face telling them how they were had because the celebrity victim is about to call the cops in on the situation - and being a celebrity, they have little choice but to react 'like a good sport' because who wants to be deemed the sourpuss?
No, I don't see what's funny about this. Nor newsworthy; Jimmy Kimmel has put up prank challenges and asks viewer to YouTube them for some time now. I'm sure he wasn't the first either.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jimmy+kimmel+challenge
What's next? "Text your mother 'Mama, just killed a man' and post their replies"? You know, 'cos that's hilarious - and if found otherwise just claim it's a sociological experiment to see how many pranksters' moms know Bohemian Rhapsody. 'cos the text in this story clearly doesn't refer to drugs either (I'm sure he ran that by legal).
Those texting accidents are more serious when you mix up WhatsApp with iMessage and tell the "wrong girlfriend" that you are ready to meet her at 20:00 while your girlfriend believes you are learning for a test.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Without commenting on the merits of this as a practical joke, I think there is obvious value in this as a social experiment(of questionable ethics, maybe) going by nothing but your response, disturbingly modded up to +5 insightful.
If you are incapable of distinguishing between drug use and drug addiction (which itself is completely distinct from physical dependency), that speaks volumes. Especially since you do not, presumably, call people who occasionally drink or who take prescription psychoactive drugs "addicts". That you seem to imply shame in *being* a criminal, instead of emphasizing the perfectly reasonable worry a parent might feel about their child being arrested, is also telling. Presumably you do not attach the same level of inherent shame in, say, occasionally driving 45 MPH in a 35 zone? Yet that also makes you a lawbreaker (if you want to quibble over infractions vs. misdemeanors vs. felonies, I am sure I could come up with instances of the latter that are similarly widespread), in addition to endangering more lives than merely your own.
The very fact so many people are calling this not funny, dangerous, and/or cruel speaks volumes about how sociologically (and morally) damaging this 'war' has been.
Ohh, since we're talking about your personal tastes, how you feel about the current state of NASA funding? I'll be sure to pass along your reply to the president because your opinion is very important to all of us.
I'm in my 30s and thankfully both my parents are still alive. With the small insight my age has given me I am increasingly grateful for the endless s*** my parents had to put up with (which I'm not going to list). My parents are nice enough to not rub it in my face now that I'm somewhat wiser, and in return I try to demonstrate that maybe I learned from it.
Now days if I get a call from my parents wondering if I could look at their PC and fix it, or teach them (again) how to use MS Word templates, or needs ANYTHING, no problem - I am there. I don't say "I'm kinda busy, and my kids have the flu..." (Cat's in the Cradle (no I don't have kids, I read slashdot)). I do it with a smile. My Mom says she would appreciate it if I would call more often, like once a week, I call, even if I don't really have anything interesting to tell. Because she asked.
Doing this false drug prank would be the worst kind of crass. It is taking the love and concern that a loving parent has for you, mocking it, and using it against them to cause them worry, concern, and pain. Then saying "Ha ha!! Just a joke. Got you!!!"
Kids now days... Did I just say that? Geez I'm getting old...
You have been excluded. I haven't done that to a /. editor in years. But this is NOT news for nerds that matters.
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
Indeed, I was thinking my first response to this would be: "Son are you crazy? Don't use your regular phone for this shit!"
What drugs cost $40 for 2 grams?
i) The parents' reactions are *all* on iPhones. Unlikely. Possibly the same phone. ii) The syntax & punctuation of the parents' comments are too similar and too tied to a single age group. And they're apparently redacted (i.e., Photoshopped). iii) Feldman has a history of gleefully committing clumsy frauds upon more gullible members of the public. The burden of proof to establish authenticity for anything that involves this guy should be exceptionally high, and nothing here meets that burden. Seriously, who is dumb enough to propagate this stuff?