Students all over the world are constantly doom scrolling on social media apps for hours searching for music, learning different cultures, and finding new trends. These trends sometimes end up with unexpected consequences. 

Tiktok is one of the biggest social media apps where trends are constantly becoming popular. Over the years some harmful trends have become popular causing injuries to all different age groups.

According to Health University of Utah these are some of the popular challenges: The Salt Challenge where you put a spoonful of salt in someone’s or your own food, the Nutmeg Challenge where someone swallows a spoonful of nutmeg in an attempt to get high, The Tide Pod challenge where someone eats a tidepod as a dare, and many more that circulate social media daily. 

One of the newest trends that social media has seen recently is the “Blackout Challenge.”

This challenge consists of holding your breath or choking yourself to make you “pass out on command” causing serious injuries. 

According to the website Bitdefender the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning signs of a child who has participated in this challenge are bloodshot eyes, marks or bruises on the neck, severe headaches, and feeling confused or disoriented after being alone. 

This challenge causes loss of oxygen leading to serious harm. Recently in November 2022 a report by Bloomberg Businessweek linked this challenge alone to 15 deaths ranging from 12 years old to 19.  

A reporter with the Triton Voice went around the school to ask students their views of these trends. 

“These challenges can be dangerous because they can cause both physical and mental damage to you,” stated senior CJ Weisenstein. She continued, “they can also influence others into participating in these trends.”

These trends aren’t new and the blackout challenge is one that has been around for a while, causing 82 deaths just between 1995 and 2007.