Anti-Smoking Group Opens Fear Clinic in Minecraft

[John Keefer]

Anti-Smoking Group Opens Fear Clinic in Minecraft


A Swedish group devoted to getting teens to stop smoking has opened shop in the popular game Minecraft.

In an effort to curb smoking by young adults, a group in Sweden has opened a virtual Fear Clinic is the game Minecraft so that people can talk about their smoking habits and problems with an on-call psychologist in-game.

"With the Fear Clinic we want to help young people to talk about fears, instead of hiding them behind a cigarette," said Ann-Therese Enarsson, chairman of A Non Smoking Generation [http://www.nonsmoking.se/]. In the video at right, you can see a player walking up to another person in a lab coat and they go into an office to chat.

The idea came about after a survey of Swedish young adults from 16-25 found that 6 in 10 believed that kids started smoking to show they are fearless. They also believe that non-smoking ads have little to no effect.

The organization has contracted with YouTube celebrity Joseph Garrett, who plays Minecraft and has created incredibly popular videos [http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-26327661] for the game, to create the videos for the Fear Clinic.

Source: PSFK [http://www.psfk.com/2014/03/anti-smoking-minecraft-clinic.html]

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[Barbas]

This displays admirable creativity and I wish them good luck.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

So they are using the private chat function on virtual servers that teens frequent to engage teens privately.

Pretty damn smart, although they could have designed the building a bit more inventively.

 

[GothmogII]

Ah, do come in...welcome to my FEAR CLINIC! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! *thunder & lightning*.

Still, brilliant idea, though, I question the doctor's credentials...

Spoiler

 

[Brian Tams]

This is actually incredibly brilliant.

Hear me out. This not only allows teens to keep their anonymity when discussing their issues (a huge thing with them), but it manages to engage them in a setting a lot of kids their age find comfortable. Basically, it holds the same advantages of a telephone help line while allowing them to feel relaxed and at ease in, what is for the most part, a peaceful environment. Kudos to these guys for engaging these kids on this level.

 

[kurupt87]

Editor, hire one.

OT: This is new. I guess they have their own server?

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

The idea came about after a survey of Swedish young adults from 16-25 found that 6 in 10 believed that kids started smoking to show they are fearless.

Wait what? So they asked young adults, smokers and non-smokers, why kids started smoking? Why not just ask the ones who were, y'know, actually smoking? The survey seems a little crap to me...

 

[Spade Lead]

As with all non-smoking campaigns, this makes me want a cigar...

 

[thewatergamer]

Wow that is a really interesting to me, great idea, wish yah the best!

 

[michael87cn]

These type of things are not taken seriously on the internet. Also, by becoming quasi-news, this will attract trolling.

 

[Xan Krieger]

Is it bad I want to join and build a giant cigarette right next to it?
"They also believe that non-smoking ads have little to no effect."
That's true, they just piss me off and make me want to smoke out of spite.

 

[Yopaz]

Is it bad I want to join and build a giant cigarette right next to it?
"They also believe that non-smoking ads have little to no effect."
That's true, they just piss me off and make me want to smoke out of spite.

Honestly, I have never smoked, never had the desire to smoke, never think I will smoke and I try to keep a distance from people or at least in the correct wind so I don't breathe in too much of it when I do and I agree with you.

I hate anti-smoking ads, I hate the scare tactics, I hate the bloated statistics and fault conclusions in so many of them. Give people the information about the dangers, label the packages and let people choose. I don't need to see a smokers lung or brain to know smoking is harmful and the truth is that quite a few would be disgusted just seeing a healthy man's lung anyway, smoker or not.

In the best case I think that anti-smoking ads have much the same effect as a bad hangover. You swear you'll never drink again, but then it passes and you break that promise and you drink again. Worst case scenario would be smoking out of spite.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

If school, parents, legal repurcussions considering the demographic, TV, Internet, surgeon generals warnings, and the growing trend of treating smokers like fucking crackheads hasn't convinced them not to smoke, I doubt some therapy via minecraft will.

Edit - although I don't know if the on pack warnings and crackhead treatment apply in Sweden.

 

[Muspelheim]

Ah, I heard about that! It's a rather neat idea, and is at least reasonably realistic. And honestly, tobacco-related or not, talking about fears and the hiding thereof is never time wasted in that age.

Probably won't impact smoking very much (which is a decreasing trend, anyway, like alcohol), but perhaps the idea could be useful for all sorts of things in the future.

If school, parents, legal repurcussions considering the demographic, TV, Internet, surgeon generals warnings, and the growing trend of treating smokers like fucking crackheads hasn't convinced them not to smoke, I doubt some therapy via minecraft will.

Edit - although I don't know if the on pack warnings and crackhead treatment apply in Sweden.

The packs basically got this black-on-white text that says "Smoking Kills" or "Smoking Ages Your Skin" and things like that. There has been talk about replacing the text with the standard pictures of dreadful teeth and recently disected lungs, but it's mostly political and lifestyle-related chestbeating at the moment.

The crackhead treatment, I haven't seen much of. There is an angry reader's letter in the paper every odd month calling for it to be outlawed, but most of the people with an actual say in the matter spend enough time in reality to treat it like it should; a taxed drug, limited to outdoor usage and not allowed around hospitals or children.

It's like in most of the West, and like alcohol; a dangerous drug too ubiqutous (and fuckin' lovely) to remove, and not dangerous enough to not financing its own damage effects.

 

[Xan Krieger]

Is it bad I want to join and build a giant cigarette right next to it?
"They also believe that non-smoking ads have little to no effect."
That's true, they just piss me off and make me want to smoke out of spite.

Honestly, I have never smoked, never had the desire to smoke, never think I will smoke and I try to keep a distance from people or at least in the correct wind so I don't breathe in too much of it when I do and I agree with you.

I hate anti-smoking ads, I hate the scare tactics, I hate the bloated statistics and fault conclusions in so many of them. Give people the information about the dangers, label the packages and let people choose. I don't need to see a smokers lung or brain to know smoking is harmful and the truth is that quite a few would be disgusted just seeing a healthy man's lung anyway, smoker or not.

In the best case I think that anti-smoking ads have much the same effect as a bad hangover. You swear you'll never drink again, but then it passes and you break that promise and you drink again. Worst case scenario would be smoking out of spite.

Here's the way I work, I smoke or drink as a coping mechanism to deal with stress so the only way to get me to stop would be to remove the stress. How to do that I don't know. If I ever found that out I'd do it only recreationally, drinking and smoking with friends who do it instead of feeling the intense urge to do it when I feel stressed.

 

[exobook]

Well minecraft has now become what people hoped second life would be. And it actually has gameplay

 

[Lt. Rocky]

Noble idea if people that young are smoking cigars. That said, when I saw the article title I first thought "What, is Vincent Price gonna be in there playing as the personification of Tobacco?"

 

[Yopaz]

Is it bad I want to join and build a giant cigarette right next to it?
"They also believe that non-smoking ads have little to no effect."
That's true, they just piss me off and make me want to smoke out of spite.

Honestly, I have never smoked, never had the desire to smoke, never think I will smoke and I try to keep a distance from people or at least in the correct wind so I don't breathe in too much of it when I do and I agree with you.

I hate anti-smoking ads, I hate the scare tactics, I hate the bloated statistics and fault conclusions in so many of them. Give people the information about the dangers, label the packages and let people choose. I don't need to see a smokers lung or brain to know smoking is harmful and the truth is that quite a few would be disgusted just seeing a healthy man's lung anyway, smoker or not.

In the best case I think that anti-smoking ads have much the same effect as a bad hangover. You swear you'll never drink again, but then it passes and you break that promise and you drink again. Worst case scenario would be smoking out of spite.

Here's the way I work, I smoke or drink as a coping mechanism to deal with stress so the only way to get me to stop would be to remove the stress. How to do that I don't know. If I ever found that out I'd do it only recreationally, drinking and smoking with friends who do it instead of feeling the intense urge to do it when I feel stressed.

We all need ways to deal with stress and I empathize more with any smoker than any of those hardcore anti-smoking people out there. I don't feel the desire nor the need, that doesn't mean I want it to go away. If it is eating unhealthy food, smoking, drinking of my personal one, coffee we all find out ways to deal with stress. Now I am currently on that high note since coffee is currently believed to reduce risk of heart diseases unlike smoking and sugar which is being treated as more deadly than cyanide right now, but it's all the same.

If it were hurting me and someone informed me about it I would still need to deal with the stress somehow. You have smoking, I have coffee and I respect your decision and I loathe the anti-smoking people. Over here they recently made it so you can't smoke at a bus stop. Nor can you smoke on government property and not during work hours. I don't like it despite the fact that I don't like smoking. I can avoid smokers while they smoke without any problems.

 

[chiggerwood]

I hate anti-smoking ads, I hate the scare tactics, I hate the bloated statistics and fault conclusions in so many of them. Give people the information about the dangers, label the packages and let people choose. I don't need to see a smokers lung or brain to know smoking is harmful and the truth is that quite a few would be disgusted just seeing a healthy man's lung anyway, smoker or not.

In the best case I think that anti-smoking ads have much the same effect as a bad hangover. You swear you'll never drink again, but then it passes and you break that promise and you drink again. Worst case scenario would be smoking out of spite.

Thank you! I think the most insipid thing they do is show a smoking habit to be more than it is, they turn it into this huge "Addiction". Speaking as someone who smokes regularly, knows people who smoke, and have quit smoking, I can honestly say that they're full of shit. The addictive quality of tobacco is a mental addiction; there is no physical quality to it, there are no withdrawals, and no huge cravings, except what you create. Either that or my family, my friends, and myself are Übermensches, because I know people who have quit and all they did was put their cigarettes down and that was it, no withdrawals, no massive craving, just a big pile of meh. I quit smoking twice, once for financial reasons, and the other time, because I was bored of smoking, no that's not bullshit, I was just bored with smoking, so I stopped until I was bored with not smoking, then I got bored again, now I just smoke a pipe and cigars, and rarely cigarettes, and even my pipe and cigar smoking is starting to fall victim to my apathy, despite my active fight against it.

 

[Sofus]

I agree that smoking isn't all that great an idea, but isn't this something that parents should talk with their children about?

Also, if i'm not mistaken then a pack of cigarettes cost somewhere around 13 euro or 18 dollars in sweden, and I assume that people have to be at the age of 18 in order to actually buy them in the first place?