Viral Challenges
If you are an Instagram user, you have probably noticed that in the past month there has been something spreading faster than the COVID — 19 virus. Since the lockdown begun people from all over the world started engaging in the chain of various challenges to cope with the boredom.
Some of the most trending ones are the “Until Tomorrow” challenge, where users upload embarrassing pictures of themselves for 24 hours or the “Pillow Challenge”, where you pose with no clothing, but a pillow and a belt. Others are challenging you to record yourself doing push-ups, holding a plank, or taking out the trash in a ridiculous costume. The participants also have to nominate other people, to follow their example.
“The Insta challenges went pretty viral during the pandemic,” says Bozhana Marinova, 22, who participated in one of them, where she needed to upload a picture from her childhood. “I am not the most active person on social media, but I liked the idea of bringing back old memories. I also had fun seeing my friends’ little smiley faces. It is good to remember that we were all kids once,” adds Bozhana.
Initially, viral challenges started circling around the internet more than a decade ago, among the first such were “Cinnamon Challenge” and “Harlem Shake” dance challenge. According to a “Business 2 Community” article, some of the most widespread dares like “Ice Bucket Challenge” and “Don’t Judge Challenge” reached their peaks, during the summer months, when people usually have more free time on their hands.
Celebrities have also always been part of the constant flow of online initiatives, dragging their fans to do the same. At the end of March 2020, football star Lionel Messi went viral with doing the “Toilet Paper Challenge” and invited other athletes and admirers to follow his example.
“People simply want to feel that they belong to something and that type of behavior is not new,” comments psychologist Ina Angova. She adds that “Now, more than ever people want to have a sense of togetherness.”
For users like me, that are irritated by the stream of identical photos and Instagram stories, Ina explains that this is just the modern version of chain mail. When she was in secondary school, they used to rewrite a letter several times and gave it to friends, who had to do the same in order to avoid a curse. Another thing they did was filling out friendship books, which now she compares with those challenges, where your friends nominate you to share something about yourself.
“Like they say in “Into the Wild” movie “Happiness (is) only real when shared”,” says Inna. She says that when people are sharing intimate pieces of their lives they feel as if somebody is co-experiencing their happiness. “For me, all this is a hunger for intimacy between people. Something that all people strive for. Some of us simply know that this is probably not the best way to achieve it.”
After all, I decided to look on the positive side, that people are enjoying their time at home, getting more active with the different sports challenges, or being creative and artistic. The challenges are not initially a negative behavior and if they give people a sense of community, then they could even be a helpful tool at times like these.
I was irritated with my friends, who were tagging me and demanding me to upload something, but eventually, I discovered a challenge that I like. I found inspiration in the “Between Art and Quarantine” challenge, where people recreate famous pieces of art. I did the “Red Gloves” painting by Joanna Maria Dziedzianowic, which portrays a girl dreaming of her boyfriend.
As when it comes to me, I am dreaming of when this global challenge — COVID -19 will come to an end and I will get to take off the gloves!
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Sofia Drenkova studies Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University in Bulgaria. Sofia is interested in Psychology and Art.
