Social media trends are getting out of control. Trends are putting people’s lives at risk, as well as  getting them in trouble at school and home. 

Social media has been around for a long time now, and seems to be the origin of most trends. One person can do something, it goes viral and then everyone else starts doing it. There’s nothing wrong with following trends, but when they become dangerous that’s when a line is crossed.

One of the first questionable trends that I remember is the cinnamon challenge. This challenge consisted of seeing if you could swallow a spoonful of cinnamon.

Not only was this dangerous, but multiple people were hospitalized because of this. According to LovetoKnow, a 13-year-old boy became comatose, and a 4-year-old boy passed away due to inhaling large amounts of the spice.

Even after this, people continued to do the challenge. That is absurd as well as just immature to put it bluntly.

Another more recent and also fatal trend is the crate challenge. In this questionable trend, multiple milk crates are stacked up, and the person completing the challenge has to attempt to climb them. 

This became so popular as well as life-threatening that Tik Tok had to block the trend off of the app, as it went against their community guidelines and spread the wrong idea. In fact, an older woman nearly lost her life from attempting to participate in the hip trend. 

In the Tide-Pod challenge a couple of years ago, people attempted to eat the toxic detergent filled pouches. Clearly, that is completely ignorant and foolish.

The Kylie Jenner lip challenge involved people squeezing their lips into bottles to make them look “plump” like Kylie Jenner’s. This caused multiple people to get their lips swollen and even bruised. 

And of course, I can’t forget to mention the trend where students set out to slap their teachers. I personally cannot comprehend how this could be amusing to someone, which leads me to say that  this is by far the most unbelievable and blasphemous of them all. Adding to that, it is insanely disrespectful.

The most recent trend that has even been brought to schools around the country, including our own school, H-F, is the devious lick trend. Students steal and vandalize school property in hopes to get a few laughs in and perhaps get Tik Tok likes. But how is it really benefiting them in the long run?

Multiple students here got expelled or suspended because of this. The school even went so far as to offer an award to those who came forward with the culprits who were committing these “crimes.” 

Having this on their records is horrible for college, which can throw off your entire career path ultimately. 

You do a trend to be cool, get a few likes, maybe go viral and end up getting in serious trouble. Some might even do them just to get validation from their peers in hopes to fit in. Just like that, the ideal future that you had in mind for yourself is ruined.

I could go on and on about all of the mindless trends that people follow. The real question is, why are teens so eager to participate in these silly and harmful activities? H-F psychology teacher, Terri Davis, gave me a little bit of insight.

“The frontal lobe (that is responsible for planning and understanding consequences), is not fully formed in teenagers. This could be the reason why teenagers are not thinking about the consequences of their actions,” Davis said. “It could also be the fact that we were all quarantined for over a year, so maybe students are seeking out some sort of companionship,” she continued.

If you think about it, continuously following trends and just doing whatever the next person does leads to a lack of individuality. It makes you rely on others for creativity and ideas. Rather than being a leader, it causes you to become a follower. 

Let’s stop being so dependent on other people to show us what is labeled “cool” or not.