Because Social Media Told Me To

How many absolutely stupid things have you seen become popular thanks to social media tools? Think of all the terrible music that has been given to the world since social media, apparently everyone can sing and play music now. All the fashion trends that have swept the world and all the aimless hate that people can spew without being held accountable. Bet you can all think of a lot of activist movements that have gained momentum thanks to a lot of uneducated people just pressing the shiny like button because their friends like it. I'm not a hater of social media, in fact I take part in it very regularly. I just can't believe some of the things that have managed to spread, when if it didn't exist people would just think these fads are absolutely ridiculous.

Image

Planking. How many times have you taken part in this or watched your friends? Sober or... well not so sober? Someone please tell me how this has become something, how this is as prevalent as it is? I remember when I started seeing photos of this all over Facebook, and all I could think was "uhmm...what?" I admit hilarious, but it's definitely something to be questioned.

Image 

Another popular one you may or may not have seen or taken part in is batmaning. Just another pointless thing to occupy time that people you know have potentially already taken pictures of themselves doing. Instagram and Facebook are littered with all of these "ings"; there are many more including owling, horsemaning, and coning. I was so confused of the popularity of all of these things so I decided to bring it up in conversation with my friends. They all agreed that they have been a part of one or two of them and really didn't have a reason for their participation. The main response was usually "well I saw it on (insert social media tool of choice) and figured why not". Like I stated before I have nothing against taking part in these but when you think about how easily we grab a hold of things through pressing the shiny like and share buttons, re-tweeting, and mass forwarding e-mails, how easy is it for us to do the same for social movements and businesses?

If your friends or yourself like to take part in the next fads on social media I got the next thing for you. Make sure you take notes due to how complex it is.
1- Go to your nearest grocery store and purchase a 2L of milk of your choice (soy, 2%, skim)
2- Go to a public place with lots of people
3- While fully clothed dump the entire 2L of milk over your head
Congratulations you have just completed "milking".

Image

Yes this is a thing, and it's starting to become quite popular for some reason. It started with some university students in England simply because they thought it was funny. Their video has become viral and their story can be found on almost any news network website. Since their "ing" has hit the online world other people around the world have already started sharing their videos of taking part in milking. I suggest you all keep lots of milk in your homes because if picks up speed like everything else, stores won't be able to keep milk on their shelves.