trend

Boredom is a Pain in The… Thumb? – 2017 and Viral Trends

January 19, 2017 by scottriley Leave a Comment

Hello and welcome back to ‘End The Trend’, the blog about viral internet stupidity and how best to avoid taking part in it. That being said, the trend I’m focusing on today is certainly not a hard one to avoid, but more on that later. Today I’m going to be writing about the first major viral trend I’ve come across in 2017, and something tells me that the internet didn’t go for the obligatory ‘New Year New Me’ twitter post this time around. We’re also going to be thinking about 2017 and what the year ahead will bring in terms of viral trends. Will we witness online success that benefits us on a worldwide scale? Or will we be subjected to just another bloated dose of unwelcome social media stupidity and brainlessness. I know which of these I’d put my money on.

Alright let’s get into this. Teenagers and young adults have been breaking their thumb ligaments, photographing it and sharing it online. I’m now going to take a step back so you can think about this for a second.

*A number of seconds pass.*

Okay now you’ve had a moment, let’s get the discussion going. The trend appears to be most lively on Twitter, with a number of users following the routine of seeing the trend, taking part in it, and then sharing the results, often back to people who took part in it previously. As if witnessing it wasn’t enough, these morons had to try it for themselves didn’t they? One even tweeted another saying something along the lines of: “you just made me break my hand”. Now tell me if I’m missing the point here, but I saw the tweets, the photos, and the diagram of how holding your thumb in a particular way and flicking your wrist forward supposedly causes this damage… So where’s my broken ligament? I saw the trend, therefore I must have followed it, they made me follow it, right?

Wrong.

If there’s one thing to take from this, it’s that if people are hurting themselves by doing something, it will probably hurt you too as like it or not, you are an ordinary mortal human being, and not the T 1000 from ‘Terminator 2’. I’m not even sure if he possess thumb ligaments… But I digress. In addition to this and on a more serious note, no one online is making you do anything at all. You can come and go as you like when online and experience as much or as little as suits you, with no obligation of witnessing or taking part in any of these trends.

Now let’s take a look at 2017 and speculate how it might turn out. After seeing this thumb trend, my hopes for a more productive year in terms of online trends were swiftly dashed. However, I’ve also encountered reports if the ‘Mannequin Challenge’ being put to good use, as a way to promote the fight against sexual assault. This is a solid way to take a somewhat pointless trend and use it for something beneficial, especially since it is already so widely known and participated in. Maybe this is what 2017 will bring: A new age of viral trends but with a beneficial goal, such as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which funded a scientific breakthrough in research. If useless shit spreads so easily online, can we not simply replace the useless shit with more of the good shit and then spread the good shit instead?

As always, thank you very much for reading, please share this post with people you think may enjoy it if possible.

An Exploration of two of ‘Finest’ (Most Shockingly Stupid) Online Viral Trends.

January 5, 2017 by scottriley 23,874 Comments

Hello all, and welcome back to ‘End The Trend’, the blog about online trends and the damage they can cause, both physically and mentally. After last week’s focus on the ‘Belly Button Challenge’ and the social damage it could potentially cause, I feel that it’s fitting to analyse some trends from the other side of the spectrum – those that involve people obviously hurting themselves, for what seems like no reason at all. Read on for an eye-opening peak inside the the internet’s grand vault of ‘Funny For A Moment But Actually Extremely Worrying’ things to do with yourself.

Firstly, let’s look at the ‘Fire Challenge’.

By Pchemstud - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53253393 — By Pchemstud – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53253393

This is a powerful start to any discussion about harmful internet trends. From a very young age, we are taught that fire hurts. We know not to go too close to it and certainly not to touch it for very long, so why is it that people are literally setting their bodies and clothes on fire for… fun? I wish I could go back in time and show this to my mother when she told me I was spending too much time playing video games. She would have been more shocked than these morons during the very moment that their arm suddenly burst into flames.

Now we have the ‘Salt and Ice Challenge’.

By Biosthmors (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The fact that the ‘Salt and Ice Challenge’ exists as a viral trend saddens and disappoints me. This may seem surprising as there are plenty of more obviously dangerous trends people are taking part in, but this one especially strikes me as stupid, largely due to the lack of possible outcomes that can happen as a result of participating in the ‘challenge’. To elaborate here, when an individual partakes in the ‘Fire Challenge’ for example, they know that there is a chance that they will be burnt through whatever the fire is burning, and as stupid as this is, they are at least only running the risk of hurting themselves. However, there are very few possible outcomes that can be achieved by holding a block of ice and some salt against your skin for a given amount of time. Spoiler alert: if you do this, it will create a reaction that burns your skin. The very worst part about this is that everybody who’s doing this probably already knows this! It isn’t a matter of ‘will this hurt me?’, but a matter of ‘how much will this hurt me?’ Are people really so bored that they will resort to self inflicted pain as a pastime?

When somebody asks if you would walk off a building if you were told to, the instinctive answer is a definitive “no”. However, tell me if I’m missing something here but I’m failing to see a whole lot of difference between that and these trends. Young people are seeing online icons and peers taking part in these so called ‘challenges’, while fully knowing the consequences of them, and following the trend regardless! The activity isn’t the real issue here, the problem is that people are taking part in it, and prompting others to follow. The problem is the trend.

“Does This Mean I’m Unhealthy?” The ‘Belly Button Challenge and the Social Impacts of Viral Trends

December 30, 2016 by scottriley 19,771 Comments

Photo Credit: Shamil Khakirov from Ukraine (- Uploaded by High Contrast) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Hello and welcome back to ‘End The Trend’. As you may know, the primary focus of this blog is to analyse viral online trends and their potentially dangerous and harmful consequences. For me, this immediately brings to mind obviously physically harmful trends such as ‘Car Surfing’ and the ‘Salt and Ice Challenge’, however much of the damage that viral trends can generate actually takes place on a social level, and is therefore in a sense, invisible. Today we are going to take a deeper look at an example of a socially harmful viral trend known as the ‘Belly Button Challenge’, and try to establish an understanding of the damage it could cause.

If the participant succeeds, to some they are deemed fit and in good shape.

If you pay attention to social media, you may notice that every now and then a so called ‘challenge’ will gain attention and popularity until it finally surfaces at the top of the ocean of memes and selfies that we all know as ‘the internet’. At this point, there is very little one can do to block this new ‘challenge’ out, as it has successfully completed its mission of becoming a fully-fledged ‘viral trend’. From the perspective of the individual, this is all well and good when a trend such as the ‘Cinnamon challenge’ occurs, as they need only to disregard it and not take part in it if they want to avoid the risk of physical harm associated with it. However, when a trend such as the ‘Belly Button Challenge’ surfaces and spreads itself throughout social media, a false ideal is spread with it, impacting those who do not fit in with it. The ‘Belly Button Challenge’, according to BBC News, is a 2015 viral trend that originated in China, in which the participant must attempt to wrap their arm around the back and front of their torso to the point at which they can touch their bellybutton. Apparently, if the participant succeeds, to some they are deemed fit and in good shape.

Obviously, just like with the plethora of other idiotic ‘challenges’, you could simply ignore it altogether, as it is unlikely (but not impossible) that your peers would force it upon you or torment you for not taking part. However, this does not mean that somebody may not torment themselves as a result of it. As odd as that sounds, try to imagine a participant attempting and failing to complete the ‘Belly Button Challenge’ after seeing many their friends and peers succeed. This may cause substantial reductions in self-esteem and feelings of self worth. A silly internet trend promotes a false ideal for the bodies of both men and women, with no scientific research or support behind it, so many people that see it will be affected by it whether they want to be included or not. To elaborate with another potential example, picture a young person who is in good health but has naturally slightly shorter arms or is less flexible than average. If this person cannot complete the ‘challenge’ as a result of this, they may feel unfit and therefore push themselves to lose weight, possibly to an unhealthy point just to fit in with a trend that would die out shortly after. And finally, if trends such as this one and many others are causing people to feel a certain way about their bodies, imagine the catastrophic effects they could have on individuals who already suffer from mental health issues.

With online viral trends like these, it’s all fun and games until they actually start to mean something. At this point, people start believing them and treating them as fact. As always, thank you very much for reading, and next time you see a trend like this, take a moment to think about how important it really is before you take part in it.