Last week, Mr. Johnson made the very brief, but very concerning announcement to not join in on the popular but dangerous One Chip Challenge. All of a sudden, it clicked with me that yet another mindless yet viral trend had emerged. Have you ever noticed that at the beginning of every school year, there’s always a new trend (that is usually asinine) arising on social media? When I heard Mr. Johnson’s cautionary warning, I experienced vivid flashbacks back to when students were eating Tide Pods for fun or recording themselves stealing soap dispensers from school bathrooms. These trends are so hilarious for their foolishness, but they make me utterly terrified for the future generations and the influence of social media on our everyday actions. Without further ado, here are my opinions on all the Gen-Z trends in the past six years. 

Killer Clowns (2016)

Public warnings to not go out late at night in fear of seeing a killer clown. YouTubers making vlogs of scouting out killer clowns. Horror-movie-esque clown costumes being all the rage for Halloween of 2016. Does any of this ring a bell to you? Sixth-grade me invested way too much time watching Scary Clown Attack compilation videos and planning out late-night-clown-hunting adventures at Alverthorpe Park with my friends. In fact, one of my school dances called for a lockdown meeting because of an alleged clown sighting outside the school. This was definitely one of the scarier trends that I’m glad died after a year, because while many of the clown attack videos were either pranks or staged, some actually resulted in life-altering injury. 

Pokemon Go (2016)

Pokemon Go was first released in the summer of 2016 and was one of the reasons that summer was one to remember. The dog days of summer for me were no more because I was absolutely addicted to this game. I have vivid memories of walking miles upon miles with my sister just to catch all the Pokemon creatures in sight. This was perhaps one of the most wholesome games to have gone viral because the gimmick was super simple: go outside and find Pokemon. Even though I was still on my phone, the game encouraged me to travel outside. I also enjoyed seeing other kids, even adults, doing the same exact thing as me in public. The game did get dangerous, though, when it was occasionally hacked to send game users to high-risk locations and get kidnapped.

Tide Pod Challenge (2017)

The Tide Pod Challenge was notoriously known for the abundance of trips to the hospital and organ failure it caused. If you forgot what it was, kids basically just swallowed an entire Tide Pod and hoped for the best. That is literally it. 

Among Us (2020)

Among Us was a murder-mystery game online that emerged at the start of the school year in 2020. Among Us still goes down as one of my favorite multiplayer/online games. Even though the hype died by the end of 2020, I enjoyed every bit of YouTube content coming from Among Us players, playing on Discord with my friends, and even making online friends through the game. 

Devious Licks (2021)

The “Devious Licks” trend was at the start of last school year, when kids on TikTok recorded themselves stealing school property, ranging from bathroom signs to ceiling screen projectors to their principal’s car door — yes, you heard me: an authoritative figure’s car door. Hearing our principal advise students to not steal any school property over the loudspeakers really showed how widespread of a trend the “Devious Licks” challenge was. This was possibly one of the most mindless, but comedic trends because it showed just how far teenagers would go to get online fame.

One Chip Challenge (2022)

This trend is a new one, and it’s pretty awful. Similar to the Tide Pods trend, the One Chip Challenge is where you buy and eat a spicy tortilla chip that is seasoned with the spiciest peppers. As if this wasn’t dangerous enough, the twist of the challenge is that you then have to see how long you can last without eating or drinking anything else to calm your taste buds. I thought that, as a generation, we had learned from the many fatalities of the Tide Pod Challenge, but I guess not. Because it’s not 100% guaranteed to experience life-altering side effects from the challenge, some kids take the risk in hopes of getting a cool story. Just like the Tide Pod Challenge, this goes down as one of the stupidest trends in history. If you are reading this, I strongly advise you to NOT partake in this trend.

I’m not sure what it is with teenagers on the Internet and life threatening challenges, but they always seem to emerge as a pair at the start of every school year. The extent that some teenagers will go to just to get validation from random Internet users baffles me. And you know the trend has gotten out of hand when the school principal feels the need to make a PSA to the entire school about it. While these trends are always hilarious to witness from afar, it’s important to not actually be engaging in such mindless acts.