The "Tide Pod Challenge"

It is customary for people to make resolutions at the end of the year in hopes that the coming year will be better than the last. With all the controversy surrounding politicians and the actions of well-known media personalities in 2017, many people in the U.S. were looking forward to a better 2018. However, within the first few weeks of the new year, the chance of 2018 being any sort of improvement does not seem too likely.

More specifically, the internet has seen the rise of its own controversial trends. The popular “tide pod challenge” has made parents, doctors, students, and other members of the community very concerned. The dangerous trend involves people, mostly teens, videotaping themselves eating the colorful detergent pods. Those who have participated in the challenge often experience the negative side effects almost immediately, some have even required hospitalization. According to the Center for Disease Control some have experienced vomiting, respiratory distress, mental status changes, gastrointestinal damage, seizure-like activity, depressed sensorium, sore throat, marked somnolence, epiglottic swelling, and swallowing dysfunction.

In an effort to help with the issue, the largest platform for these videos, YouTube, has reportedly banned all videos containing people consuming laundry pods. They hope to prevent the increased views that help drive people to attempt this challenge. However with literally hundreds of search results for “tide pods” on YouTube, one can’t help but be sceptical of the overall effectiveness of this strategy.

Some adults who have questioned the acts of these children have brought up that the teens willingness to do something that has the potential to be deadly could be a way to draw adults attention to a bigger issue. What mental stress could these teens be experiencing to bring them to consume the toxic pods? Hopefully this trend of negativity does not continue throughout the year.