I was in middle school when I tried the Kylie Jenner lip challenge. After watching my favourite influencers suck the air out of a shot glass to achieve the lipstick mogul’s inflated lip look, I sat down in front of the mirror, shot glass in hand, and started a timer.
Before TikTok we used Vine. The app provided a platform for people to show their puffed-up bruised lips to the world. Those with the most shocking and extreme results garnered fame, which apparently was enough to entice my dumbass 13 year-old-self.
After pulling off the suctioned glass, my now unnaturally red lips were practically the size of my fist. For the next week, I walked around with a hickey-esque bruise painted around my mouth and didn’t gain any social media attention despite my best efforts.
If you aren’t familiar with the Kylie Jenner lip challenge, perhaps you remember planking, the salt and ice challenge or even the infamous condom snorting challenge. If you’re on social media, odds are you’ve run into one of these pointless and often dangerous internet challenges, or maybe if you’re like me, you were stupid enough to try one, ending up with mauled lips.
In the digital era, it’s almost impossible not to engage with social media. People need to be aware of the dangers involved in these trends and that a few seconds of internet fame is not worth it. Some of these challenges have claimed lives. Should social media platforms do more to prevent these dangerous trends from circulating? I think so.
Since TikTok holds the record for the most downloaded app of the 2022, let’s dive into some of the most dangerous trends plaguing the platform. This goes without saying, but do not try these at home—or ever. Think of this as a ‘what not to do’ guide. If you’ve been lucky enough to survive one of these challenges, let’s both make a promise not to try our luck again.
Tide Pod challenge
I couldn’t, in good faith, write this story without including the Tide Pod challenge. The fad emerged in 2017 but is still ongoing. All one needed was laundry detergent pods and a phone. From biting down on it to cooking it in a pan, the goal was to ingest the pod, often resulting in the challenger spewing foam from their mouth. The Pod’s ingredients including ethanol, hydrogen peroxide, and soap can cause caustic burns to the consumer’s gastrointestinal tract.
The trend resulted in numerous deaths, emergency room trips and poison control calls.
Benadryl challenge
The bleak and isolating days of 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic created the perfect storm for the Benadryl challenge. With everyone locked inside due to stay-at-home orders, some looked for dangerously unique ways to alter their mental state and pass the time.
This challenge dared people to take an obscene amount of antihistamines to get high. The issue with this challenge is that ingesting too much of the medication can lead to serious health effects including extreme drowsiness, blurry vision, hallucinations, tachycardia, dry mouth and even death.
NyQuil chicken challenge #SleepyChicken
While we’re on the topic of medication being misused, let’s talk about the abominably disgusting NyQuil chicken challenge. In the fall, users posted videos of themselves cooking raw chicken marinated in NyQuil, coloquially called “sleepy chicken,” to TikTok.
When you heat medication, it can alter its potency, making it more concentrated. This leaves those cooking meat prone to inhaling high levels of the drug via vapour, potentially leading to health complications and even death.
Devious licks
The devious licks challenge started in 2021 after multiple high school students in North America began posting TikToks of themselves stealing objects from their schools. Nothing was safe or off-limits for these unique thieves, from water fountains, to fire extinguishers, to class pets.
The trend ultimately led to multiple arrests, and schools started to lock up even the most mundane supplies. Doing this trend might land you a life-changing criminal record to go with your new whiteboard.
Erection cream challenge
The erection cream challenge emerged on TikTok in 2021, perhaps to pay homage to the OG Kylie Jenner lip challenge. After an influencer posted a how-to video on TikTok slathering erectile dysfunction cream on their lips as lip plumper, others followed suit.
Dermatologists have since denounced this practice, citing its potential danger of burns and blisters on the cream user’s mouth.
Eye challenge
I saved a stomach-turning challenge for last, the extremely dangerous ‘eye challenge.’ In 2019, TikTok users began mixing fruit jelly, bleach and hand sanitizer in plastic bags, then would bring their eyes close to the concoction. Even the false promise of a new eye colour as a result of this challenge isn’t enough to justify the severe eye damage or blindness it can cause due to chemical burns. No potion created from household cleaning products can change one’s eye colour, which is genetic.
Do NOT try this at home.
From the cinnamon challenge to the slap-a-teacher challenge, dangerous internet trends are inescapable and a part of online culture. Don’t partake in these trends; it’s not worth risking your well-being for a few extra views. Please don’t be risky, and don’t try any of these at home.
