Comments

4 responses to “This interactive site gives you a taste of what it’s like to drown”

1. Justin Gallagher

   April 28, 2014

   This is a very important lesson for people to abide by and I think the first-person POV really enhances the overall importance of the message. It seems very real, and the viewer definitely gets a feel of the actualities of drowning at sea. I think this video works very well as a reminder for people to wear life jackets.

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2. Ross Schwartz

   April 28, 2014

   This actually had me scared for a bit! I noticed myself starting to breathe rather quickly after a couple minutes “at sea.” I was frantically pressing the up arrow, just like I’d be flailing if that was me drowning without a lifejacket. After those couple of minutes, I thought I should slow down to not tire out, but that proved to be a mistake and I drowned after 2:45. I tried to stay afloat and survive for a second time and I lasted 5:42 before drowning. The sequence shown at the end before officially dying underwater, was really creative, showing all of these memories at high-speed. The sequence changed between my first and second attempt. The vision of a boat coming to rescue was a nice touch too! The first-person point of view (especially in full-screen) and the sound effects (underwater sounds, going back and forth between being above and below the surface) definitely made the experience immersive.

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3. Basem Istanbouli

   May 9, 2014

   This was honestly extremely horrifying for me. I have been a victim of drowning (didn’t drown, because if I did I wouldn’t be here), but it definitely had a large impact on me. I couldn’t help but realize that even when the video itself was lagging, I still felt as if I had the person’s life in my hands. I guess that also might’ve been because the scroll bar would still fall even when it was lagging, nonetheless, I still felt a deep connection even when I wasn’t connected frame-by-frame. Another thing is I couldn’t let the guy drown, so instead of letting him drown, I ended up exiting from the screen, but I realize that if this was real-life, I wouldn’t necessarily be able to “unplug”, per se. Definitely made the whole thing way more immersive than I needed it to be, lol.

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4. Michael Ryan Mooney

   May 10, 2014

   This shows a logical way to teach water safety to people. Scare the living daylights out of them! It is true that we are a reactionary society, so this serves as a good way to show the horrors of drowning and realize that wearing a life jacket isn’t such a bad idea and maybe it can save your life. Maybe the next step is to do a virtual reality version with a life jacket on, so people can actually compare and see how vital life jackets are.

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