JMS 215 Post 3

I have never been a huge fan of any sort of social media ‘challenge’. The only time I have ever participated in one was the ALS challenge when I was a freshman in high school. I only did it out of peer pressure from my friends, and after filming the video and posting it on Facebook, I learned that people have to film the challenge AND then donate to an ALS organization, which of course I did not do because I was 13 and had no money of my own. At that point, what was the purpose? I have never found any purpose of any sort of challenge on social media if the person doesn't donate to the cause the challenge was designed for. However, other challenges are just harmful, and no other reasoning other than to laugh at others’ pain. One that comes to mind to me was the cinnamon challenge, where someone inhales a spoonful of cinnamon and tries their best to not choke. I remember my classmates participating in this challenge and posting videos for laughs and likes, but would come to school and tell everyone how they were unable to breathe and it scared them. What was the point? At the end of the day, they had some likes and bragged about it for a day, and that was it. Most challenges seem to be created by ruthless middle school children and end up hurting more people, then helping any cause. Overall, I hate to be the fun hater, but I am not a huge fan of challenges on social media. I usually just end up scrolling past the video on my Facebook or Instagram with the first #challenge that I see. I believe that if someone truly wants to make a difference for an organization, donate to the cause or advocate for them, don’t post a video, and then do nothing.