Everyday, over four billion people log onto their social media accounts to make a post, or catch up with friends. But as more and more people start to develop social media accounts more and more inappropriate, dangerous and risky posts are made on these platforms. 

There have been thousands of news stories that have touched upon the high-risk videos and pictures being posted on platforms almost hourly. Kids, and even adults, have been known to perform dangerous stunts in some of these posts. A great majority of these posts will have a domino effect on other social media users – meaning that one person will create a post of them doing something unsafe and others will recreate the post to follow the trend. 

According to fortune.com, some of the crazy stunts being performed include the Bird Box Challenge, the Tide Pod Challenge, and the Fire Challenge. 

The Bird Box Challenge is based off the Netflix hit movie, Bird Box and it consists of blindfolding yourself and going about your daily life. This challenge could sound like a harmless game, but when parents start blindfolding their small children to take videos of them running into walls and cabinets, we realize it’s not so harmless afterall. 

Most of us have probably heard of the infamous Tide Pod Challenge, in which teens, children and adults eat tide pods. Obviously, participating in this challenge is a bad idea – you’re eating toxic laundry detergent for views on social media. Lastly, the Fire Challenge is when people literally set themselves on fire. 

No matter how crazy these stunts sound, people are still posting videos of themselves attempting to do them which, in some cases has involved in serious injuries and even death. But why do people of all genders, ages, races, etc. feel the need to do dangerous pranks and stunts, let alone film themselves doing it?

The answer to this question, according to fastcompany.com, is that “The incentives to ‘win’ at social media are a product of design and not an accident.” When people see others performing these risky stunts, and getting famous while doing it, they too want to get famous even if it means putting their life in jeopardy.

Money is a huge factor into this problem as well. When a person is faced with the option of working for their money, or taking pictures and videos of crazy stunts being performed, people are probably going to choose the one that takes less time, and effort. In this case, taking quick pictures and videos is way less time consuming and requires so much less effort than attending work daily. 

This idea may be hard to comprehend. When people, especially adolescents, who are greatly involved with social media have the opportunity to get famous, and make money by barely doing anything they are obviously going to film these videos.