Students’ feeds have filled with the entertaining posts.
By Cate Pitterle (’20)
As coronavirus-spurred quarantines empty streets, school buildings, and stores around the country and world, many students are turning to Instagram challenges as a therapeutic escape or time occupier in the face of home-isolation boredom.
Junior Angelina Chen participated in the See a Pup, Share a Pup Challenge, which circulated on National Dog Day, March 23. “Some people have said that sharing Insta challenges doesn’t have a tangible benefit,” she said, “but I think that they help people have fun and help people believe they’re doing something good.”
Instagram challenges encourage users to post a themed picture using Instagram Stories, a feature that deletes posts after 24 hours, and tag followers to do the same. Over the past several days, a crush of these challenges has flooded the social media platform, with thousands of students participating.
It all started around March 19 with the circulation of the Beautiful Women Challenge, which urged women and girls to post pictures of themselves along with text: “Oftentimes women find it easier to criticize themselves or each other instead of bringing each other up. With all the negativity going around, let’s do something positive. Upload one picture of yourself and tag 10 beautiful women. Spread positivity!!”
The challenge sparked others. See 10, Do 10, Tag 10 encouraged users to stay active at home by doing ten push-ups. The Suit Challenge gave nostalgia to speech and debate students who posted old pictures of themselves at tournaments. There were the #stageface Challenge for actors, Game Face Challenge for athletes, Show Me Your Swing Challenge for golfers, Chip Challenge for equestrians, and the Favorite Bible Verse Challenge. One challenge, Until Tomorrow, even had users post funny or embarrassing pictures of themselves on their main feed—with the caveat that they delete them after 24 hours.
With the news full of increasing death tolls, mandatory quarantine notices, travel restrictions, and toilet paper shortages, perhaps it’s natural that many challenges center around positivity. To sophomore Grace Jaeger-Sandruck, the challenges are “super fun by showing off positivity and kindness”; to junior Russell Burns, “some of the challenges are silly, but they are positive nonetheless.”
At the end of the day, challenges are a way for students to connect and unwind. “Seeing people’s dogs and cats and doing push-ups — it’s amusing to say the least,” said senior Cindy Li. And junior Lily Weinstein, who has participated in several athletics-focused challenges, added, “I think the challenges are fun, especially the exercise ones! It keeps me busy!”
With home isolation increasing screen time for many—including Li and Weinstein, who say they are on Instagram much more than normal—challenges provide a sense of positivity and optimism that social media can lack, and a sense of connection that isolation can prohibit.
Instagram logo copyright Instagram.