Internet trends are taking over the teen world

Internet trends are taking over social media and the teen world. Many may argue that this is detrimental to teen health increasing screen time, and participating in dangerous challenges. Depending on the challenge I see both positive and negative aspects of these new found internet challenges. Some popular internet challenges from the past year include the Tide Pod challenge, the Kiki challenge, the van challenge, and the Woah dance challenge.

Many of these challenges can be highly dangerous for teens for example, the Tide Pod challenge, an internet fad in 2018 included eating laundry detergent pods. At first, this challenge started as a joke, but soon took over the world. “In 2017, poison control centers in the U.S. received more than 10,000 reports of children under age 5 being exposed to the pods” according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

Another dangerous challenge at the end of 2018 included the Kiki dance challenge, dancing alongside a moving car, can end in a trip to the emergency room.

Senior Salma Yousef states, “When I did the Kiki challenge over this past summer, I sprained my ankle and was on crutches for a week.”

Although some internet trends can increase social interaction between teens. For example, the Vans challenge. The challenge included throwing the popular Van shoe, where it always lands upright. Videos flooded the internet, spreading other teens experiences and jokes.

The latest challenge, named the woah challenge has recently taken the world by storm. This challenge includes doing a certain dance move to a top rated song called “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas. This song has spread laughs and a funny dance move amongst teens, and allowed teens to bond and socialize over the newest trend.

What seems like every other week, a new internet trend has taken over social media and the teen world. Every internet trend has a different effect on teen life, positively or negatively. Social Media is a large part of most every teens life, and internet fads are only a small part that affects teens every day.