Trends or challenges have been a part of the fabric of social media for a long time. They have ranged from the benign ice bucket challenge (which raised millions for research on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) to the highly dangerous Tide pod challenge (which involved eating laundry detergent capsules). All of these internet phenomena involved videotaping an individual who performed a bizarre physical action for the vast internet audience in exchange for greater viewership, compliments, reactions and most importantly, attention. To achieve this ultimate goal of greater attention, individuals take extreme risks to grandstand and one-up each other via increasingly outlandish and dangerous behaviors. Modern social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram function on the principle of a new virtual economy where amateur content is traded in exchange for attention leading to enormous but temporary psychological fulfillment, social influence and even monetary gain.
Recently, news stories broke about teenagers dancing while stepping out of moving cars, imitating a popular video song, for the Kiki Challenge. Police organizations and even the National Transport Safety Board publicly cautioned individuals against taking up this practice due to the obvious physical danger. Then, a 12-year-old girl in set herself on fire for the fire challenge, resulting in second and third degree burns to over half her body. This, I decided, could not be attributed to mere adolescent social media experimentation.
Avoiding setting oneself on fire or remaining inside a moving vehicle is not a complicated piece of advice. Yet, in this era of extreme social media challenges and trends, adolescents and even older supposedly mature adults need to be told that fire is a danger and remaining seated in a moving automobile is not an optional choice. If fundamental logic and decision making capacity has failed among vast numbers of an entire generation, it raises a significant concern for society as a whole. It raises concerns as to whether this apparent lack of capacity in basic risk identification and avoidance is a product of extreme social media usage, peer pressure or any other social/psychological factor.
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