A gooey, flimsy capsule of blue and orange laundry detergent. Something about the liquid revved hundreds of teen’s desire high enough to try its chemical flavor. Did they do it for fun? Maybe. But, it’s probably safe to say that teens aren’t eating tide pods because they look appetizing. They’re doing it “for the culture."

This generation is infatuated with internet fame. It’s not an assumption to say that the generations growing up in this century today has been exposed to a completely different environment than other generations. While not everyone may be on their phone 24/7 or classify themselves as the “typical millennial," everything in our lives from our education to our work life is rooted in the internet and has been since the start of the dial-up internet. The internet has been a part of my life since I was in elementary school. We, as students, spend more and more time at school on Pearson, Moodle and Blackboard than we have in the past, which is exposing us to some form of the internet in some way. We can’t escape the rabbit hole of the internet if we play an active role in society today.

And as we are exposed to the new sides of the internet and social media every day, it has become more and more normal to upload every single detail or our lives onto the internet. While at first sharing your pictures was a way to keep in touch with family in friends, it has now become a way to highlight the best moments and greatest accomplishments in your life. You don’t upload photos of yourself taking a poop on Instagram (maybe to your finsta, but besides the point) because people don’t like shit like that. You upload the things that are quirky and cute, things that you believe people should see. This has fueled the idea of "internet fame" because some people want everyone to know about them or know of them. And for everyone to know of you, you need to do things the everyday person wouldn’t do.

So basically, as if it was unknown, we’re eating tide pods to build our social media presence and, even for some, build our careers. There are multiple YouTubers that have made millions of dollars in the mere few years they’ve been on YouTube with an education as standard as high as a high school diploma. Our current president got his higher position based on his celebrity status and “bold” views on issues, not with any political background experience or common sense. Kids as young as ten can fully comprehend the value that internet fame has over things such as education and morality which instills this toxic belief in them.

Everyone wonders how people like Logan Paul can become famous on YouTube, but it’s pretty self-explanatory. Viewers like controversy. They like drama, stories, and clickbait to such an extreme that you’ll still find yourself clicking on a controversial figures' video even if you just said that you hated them ten minutes ago. We need to know every single detail that’s going on in the world around us or we feel this sense of disconnect in the social media realm. What was that stupid video of Tomi Lahren about? What was that last tweet from our current president?

Also, popular culture and society have been encouraging these actions as soon as they became popular. How long was that horrific video trending of YouTuber Logan Paul vlogging a dead body on YouTube? It was on YouTube for hours, and YouTube wasn’t even the one to take it down. Paul took it down 24 hoursafter it was published due to obvious backlash. Companies like YouTube are willing to allow their highest revenue stars to publish controversial content so they can make their coins at the expense of basic morals and ethics.

“Internet fame” is a weird thing. While you may not actively contribute to it, you do engage in it because there’s always something new going on. We’ve had gallon smashing, “do it for the vine” and now tide pods. Not to say that internet fame should be a bad thing because some of the best videos and vines have come from it, but should we doing things that exploit others or put our lives in danger for a couple thousand views?

On a final note, please don’t try and bite into tide pods. There’s a clear reason why it says do not consume on the front of the tide packaging. What are you thinking? I truly think everyone’s sanity has started spiraling downhill since Vine deleted their app.