When Charles Darwin proposed the theory of natural selection in his book, On the origin of species. It was a landmark moment in history. That singular book changed our understanding of not only human biology and evolution as a whole but also how the environment over the ages has fought to preserve itself from the meddling animals (of which we are included). Granted, that was not the key point of the book but, I consider myself well-read enough to postulate my theories and draw my conclusions. To summarize his theory, there are traits that various species possess that enable them to adapt and survive in their environment. These traits are passed down from generation to generation and, before long, a new species with these dominant traits is formed.

Now you might wonder what is the point of this biology lecture. Well, my pen has been brimming with venom over the past couple of months while I was on a self-imposed hiatus. My shrink (which is me, in the mirror) warned that I was well on the path to becoming a bitter old man who whines about everything. I advised me to change my ways. Enjoy life, bask in the simplicity and silliness of it. And that is what I’ve been trying to do. Enjoy life and bask in its inherent silliness. At least until the #cratechallenge came along. So here I am, fully relapsed into vitriol writing mode, and I must admit, I kind of enjoy it.

To the matter at hand, for those who are not familiar with what exactly the #cratechallenge is. It’s involves a person carefully navigating a stack of milk crates, trying to see if they can get across from one end to another without falling. A couple of you might have a puzzling look on your face. “Okay, so why are they doing that? What is the point?”. Well, join the queue. You are not the only one searching for answers. Surely, if we persevere and dig further, the truth must be out there!

Where to even begin? Scrolling through my WhatsApp feed, I could not help but chuckle at a series of videos depicting various individuals at different stages of the challenge. Needless to say, no one completed it. The end of the videos were the best part for me. Watching these people crash spectacularly, their bodies twisted and juxtaposed in their choice of background brought a smile to my face. Play stupid games, win stupid rewards. On a more sombre note, this sheds a light on a bigger issue in the social media sphere. I am not about to go on a “social media bad” rant as that discourse would require years of research and is a topic that folks more qualified than I am have dissected in more ways than I can imagine and the views are still as polarizing than ever. But I can say this, if there’s anything social media has done, it is bringing stupidity to the forefront now more than ever. To what end is the crate challenge meant to achieve. I mean, you climb a bunch of crates, where you have a 98% chance of falling and sustaining injuries, some life-threatening. For what? It beats me honestly. I feel like the participants in these challenges are operating on a higher plane of thought, intelligence and consciousness I can only dream of attaining. There must be a derived satisfaction and sense of fulfillment that we prude humans that don’t seem to get what these challenges are all about are missing out on.

Multiple challenges are bouncing around the corners of the social media world. Waiting for the perfect combination of chance and algorithm-powered feeds to push them to the front of the queue, where the ever-impressionable users can then participate in it for their daily dose of dopamine hit. From the #cratechallenge to the ‘silhouette challenge’, where one strips naked and dances to a once-beloved-now-desecrated song with only a red background preventing the complete display of nudity. Or is it the ‘Kiki challenge’ that involved participants jumping out of a moving car to do some excruciating to watch dance steps that look like a summoning ritual of 1800 Salem witches. A trip further down reveals more sinister ones like the tide pod challenge where people were eating detergents and filming themselves doing it. Detergent people! I mean, with all this happening before our very eyes, even an atheist at this point would find it hard to denounce the existence of demons. Like what in the world would make any sane, functional person consume detergents? With each passing day, it feels like we are living in a black mirror episode with another sick twist not far down the line.

Unfortunately, the demographic most affected by these challenges are kids and young adults. With their brains still at a formative stage (if you are above 16 taking part in these challenges, you need to evaluate your life choices and avoid having kids for the time being); they are coerced into doing these challenges that encourage and result in self-harm. Maybe in search of a community that they can belong to, or just for the high derived from likes, hearts, reposts, and tweets. The reasons many do this might be a mystery. But I have a simple explanation. Humans, on average, are dumb. It is that simple. I can imagine an order of white knights coming to defend humans with a list of our achievements from both a technological and social-economic perspective, and I say to that, even a dead clock is right twice a day. Multiple that clock by 7 billion and you can see that the numbers are in our favor.

The truth is, or my truth is, (since we are in the era of speaking your truths), we are on the upward curve in terms of how dumb and deadly these challenges are getting. It is only a matter of time before we get to the peak, where a challenge that would wipe out millions would come along. At that point, the major decision and policymakers would start running around in circles as they always do, looking for ways to mitigate the situation. It is just unfortunate that there is no cure for human stupidity. But anyhow, the natural selection process that has brought us this far has not failed us yet. In our shadow war with nature, mother earth would always protect itself. So at the end of the day, maybe the natural selection process that would solve Earth’s overpopulation process has already begun with social media being the vehicle for that change. My 2 cents? Sit back and enjoy another chapter in the never-ending play of life outlined in Darwin’s book? Survival of the fittest. Act 3, scene 1.


https://revoluth./2021/08/27/social-media-challenges-a-proponent-of-natural-selection/