It’s not all roses on social media

Seema Sangra

Social media platforms gave us a community and an extended family feeling. When social media network platforms emerged and we were introduced to a new version of friends. We had a lot more friends on our friend list. It helped us get in touch with many lost friends, we managed to track our old classmates and people we had interacted with many years back. Facebook was the pioneer. Then came Instagram, Snapchat, before TikTok finally arrived and added well-packaged content and interaction to our experience. It provided scope for creative expression and made us laugh, learn new recipes, and enjoy dance and music. No doubt, the platform reached new heights of popularity.

I will not dwell on how this virtual interaction between friends and connections changed personal lives, but rather focus on other dimensions where we interacted on these platforms as communities. Instagram and TikTok, among other platforms, commercialized the community size and helped coin the term ‘social media currency’.

Collective action by large communities started the social media challenges trend. Making a difference via social media challenges became another way of ‘contributing-towards-a -cause’ staple. People, in general, want to contribute, but only if the process is easy — something that can make them feel good, yet is not too difficult to accomplish. So we saw the emergence of challenges like #Icebucketchallenge to raise awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), #BlindingLightsChallenge, based on the Weekend’s 80’s inspired energetic dance tune that connected family members and friends together, and #SafeHands challenge during the first wave of Covid19, initiated by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Through such initiatives, people contribute to a bigger cause, albeit with minimal effort.

Thus while platforms have the potential to connect and motivate social media users around the world, they can also have a darker side. Particularly when the minimum age for membership is as low as 13 years. Many of us haven’t forgotten about the awful Blue Whale online community-based challenge targeting teenagers. And now there are again some recent challenges involving teenagers. The #deviouslicks challenge encourages students to steal stuff from schools. Students in the US have stolen things like facemasks, soap dispensers, bathroom mirrors, fire alarms, paper towel holders, and even items from the teacher’s desk. They display their handiwork in a TikTok video, with the hashtag deviouslicks. One TikTok video featuring stolen hand sanitizer got 7.2 million views! The situation reached a point where schools in the US had to come up with a special monitoring plan.

TikTok also grabbed headlines for its extreme diet known as the Corpse Bride diet trend, which encourages teenagers to gamble with their health. Seeking to highlight the dangers associated with this challenge, an Investigative journalist from Wall Street Journal created multiple profiles as 13-year-old users. Within two months of setting up the fake profiles, TikTok’s algorithm sent 32,000 videos associated with weight loss to the fake profiles. The videos gave tips on how to eat less than 300 calories a day, consume only water, and take laxatives for over-eating. There were extreme videos of festive-themed competitions. The ‘corpse-bride diet’ for maximum weight reduction was suggested with pictures of teen girls with bones sticking out. There was also constant shaming of those people who gave up on getting thin.

The most recent and worrisome challenge, popular amongst teens, is the ‘blackout challenge’, also known as the ‘Choking Challenge or ‘Pass-out Challenge’. It encourages users to hold their breath until they pass out due to a lack of oxygen. Some children aged 12 and under have already died after attempting the challenge. Some say that this challenge existed even in 2008, but gained popularity on TikTok a few months back. Besides these challenges, there are multiple instances of teen girls being repeatedly targeted by child predators.

The growing popularity of social media platforms amongst teenagers, notably TikTok, is being increasingly linked with rising mental health issues, injuries, and even deaths among vulnerable target groups. It is high time we think about where it is leading our younger generation. With apps capable of tracking our every move, we have already reached a point where parental and policies level interventions are not a choice but an imperative.

[The author, a former resident of Muscat, is the Program Leader for the Media Studies Department of Amity University, Dubai Campus. She is also pursuing her PhD studies in New Media and Non-Profits. Email: [email protected])