By Amaya McCullumm
mccua31@mail.broward.edu
In February of 2023, a 15-year-old boy named Zackery Nazario lost his life after attempting the popular trend on TikTok, known as “Subway surfing”. Like the video game, the idea was to try and ride on top of or on the side of a moving subway car. Though it might seem like a thrilling challenge, subway surfing is extremely dangerous and, in many cases, deadly. Being hit by stationary objects, like an overhead beam in Nazario’s case, or being electrocuted, are two of the common ways that this could turn fatal. Additionally, there are other ways to experience these feelings of excitement without risking your life, so why did Nazario choose to follow such a dangerous trend? After his death, his mother went through his social media feeds and found that it was full of videos like the stunt he had tried. His actions were not a spontaneous decision or idea from a friend. Rather, it was a push from the algorithm.
Trends do not go viral by accident. What you see online is not random. It is driven by how much you and your peers engage with certain types of content. Emotional, extreme, or dramatic posts tend to garner more attention from people. Then, we begin to interact with these posts by watching them longer, liking, commenting, reposting, or following the creators. After doing so, you may notice that your feed becomes filled with more of these eye–catching videos, making you want to continue scrolling. This phenomenon, in simple terms, is known as the algorithm.
Social media is free to use, so if the apps are not directly receiving money from us users, then they must find another source for income. That source is advertising. Whether you are using Tik Tok, YouTube, Instagram, or even Facebook, there are always ads trying to grab our attention. More often than not, we choose to scroll past them and continue watching our captivating feed. However, that is all the platform needs. Even if you skip an ad after a few seconds, the platform still counts it as a ‘view’ which means advertisers are still paying, and the platform still profits.
To continue watching your interesting content, you must see advertisements. Without the entertaining content, you would likely only be using social media very little, or not at all. Then, social media would not profit at all. If no viewers are watching the advertisements, then they make no income. That is why social media’s main task is to keep you constantly entertained, so you continue to scroll through all those ads, and they continue to make all that money. To keep viewers engaged for long periods, posts need to be something most of the audience finds intriguing. The most effective method that does this is “trends”.
A trend is a form of content, usually a video that gains rapid attention from the public. It is continuously recreated and joined by others. While there are no strict rules as to what makes a trend go viral, most share similar traits; they tend to be extreme, dramatic, or funny. Unfortunately, dangerous or harmful “trends” can also fall into these categories. In fact, many have led to serious injuries or worse. Some viral ones include, the “Tide Pod Challenge”, where people eat or bite laundry detergent, specifically the detergent known as “Tide Pods”, the result being a burning sensation in the stomach and throat, difficulty breathing or even organ failure. The “Cinnamon Challenge” involved Individuals swallowing a spoonful of powdered cinnamon without water; the effect being choking and lung inflammation. Additionally, the challenge known as the “Devious Lick” became very popular in schools, where students would steal or vandalize school property, causing the perpetrators to be suspended or criminally charged. Furthermore, the “Skull Breaker” was a dare where two people would trick a third person into jumping up and down, and as the third person was jumping mid-air the other two people would kick the third person’s legs making them fall backward and hit the ground extremely hard. This would lead to potential concussions and, at times, spinal injuries.
Not all trends are bad, as some include less risky ideas, such as dancing, where people would dance to specific songs or audio. Also, transformations where users would show before and after looks, usually with makeup, lighting, or fashion effects. Another common one is “story times” or “confessions”, where people share their dramatic, personal, or shocking stories with the audience. Though these trends have their viral hits occasionally, the trends that are more extreme or shocking get the most views and attention consistently.
Social media platforms know that dangerous trends are spreading on their apps. And even though they have moderators, most of the time they act after something bad happens, not before. It’s a reactive system, not a protective one. Their algorithms are built to keep people watching and scrolling, because that’s what makes them money, not keeping users safe. Until these companies start putting safety over profits, harmful trends will keep going viral. And people like 15-year-old Zackery Nazario will keep paying the price. The algorithm might not be designed to benefit us, but that doesn’t mean we cannot push it to change. We have power. We can think twice about the content we watch, skip stuff that’s clearly dangerous, and speak up when something feels wrong.