Sir, – Conor Pope writes that the internet site, which promulgated it round the world, has no responsibility for "the neknomination craze" and its tragic consequences (Opinion, February 7th). The fact that more money is made as a result of what happened tells us where the responsibility lies.
The bigger the outrage and the more tragic the consequences the more publicity there is for the site.
Conor Pope, however, reduces the blame to “the twin forces of drink and idiocy”. It goes much deeper than that.
The internet chat sites cultivate our sense of entitlement to the level of the moronic. Their owners are billionaires as a result.
Contrary to Conor Pope’s assertion, therefore, the self-obsessed, self-indulgent, arrogant, intolerant sense of entitlement, cultivated by internet mass media, is the responsibility of those who are benefiting from it. – Yours, etc,
A LEAVY,
Shielmartin Drive,
Sutton, Dublin 13.