In today’s world, millions of teenagers have TikTok, Snapchat or Instagram downloaded on their phones. It could be to get likes or watch cute cat videos, but some take it too far.
“Yesterday, I spent two hours and nine minutes on just TikTok,” sophomore Samantha Galloway said.
With each TikTok being an average of 45 seconds long, spending just two hours on the app one can see at least 160 videos. Watching this many videos can expose someone to a seemingly lighthearted challenge or trend but can turn out to be dangerous or pose self-harm.
“Harmful trends are dangerous because it poses threats to your health and can get you in the hospital. It can indirectly influence others to do the same thing without trying,” freshman Delaney Nierman said.
A survey from Derby Publications found that 80% of 161 respondents had seen a harmful trend online, and only 0.3% had participated.
These harmful trends pose a significant threat to anyone who participates in them. From self-starving to taking Benadryl to hallucinate –– it’s dangerous.
However, unhealthy trends are not new. From 2016 to 2018, eating Tide Pods and spooning a mouth full of cinnamon was popular. Most of these trends start as funny memes but have an underlying connection to self-harm to some extent.
Stemming from funny trends like girl dinner, people have turned to an unhealthy trend of eating fewer calories. This calorie deficit can lead to slower learning or memory than their peers.
“Not eating enough can absolutely affect you, especially in a learning environment. You can lose focus; you’ll be tired and have brain fog. You definitely can’t starve yourself and expect to be successful. When you go to extremes of anorexia, it can be fatal,” school nurse Christy Higginbotham said.
Purposely eating less food can lead to long-term medical issues and problems.
“Trends of eating less can be a gateway to an eating disorder that can affect you for the rest of your life,” Higginbotham said.
Consuming unsafe quantities is common; other glaringly dangerous trends involving stealing property still emerge.
A popular trend was stealing school property, nicknamed a “devious lick.” Even though people participating thought it was funny or got views, it damaged the school and impacted students’ daily lives.
“We had to deal with the devious licks on multiple occasions, you know, students trying to take teacher’s desks or the hand soaps,” security guard Matt Garvey said.
Stealing hand soaps prevents proper hand washing and can spread diseases. The cost of replacing soap also falls on the student and potentially the school.
“The students had to pay a lot of money to fix whatever they stole if they were caught. If not, the school had to pay for it,” Garvey said.
Although these trends can attract views, they are not worth potentially hurting and damaging yourself or the things around you.