I am always the type of person to degrade social media. Yes, I have accounts on most of them. Yes, I am active on most of them. However, that doesn't bother me. I just find it absolutely insane that someone can actually make a successful career out of making vines and YouTube videos. However, there are certain scenarios where you really have to just sit back and be amazed by what this vast network can do. The trend currently catching my eye is the "Running Man Challenge."
For those that do not know the whole story, the "Running Man Challenge" was ignited by two young men at a high school in New Jersey, according to the television show "Ellen." The video was then seen on Instagram by two Maryland Basketball players, who decided to make their own video. Following that came an eruption of videos of the "Running Man Challenge." It stayed in the college basketball communities. With dozens of big-time college basketball programs creating videos and releasing them all over social media. Now everyone is doing it. Professional sports teams, police departments, military, talk shows, and Snapchat stories everywhere. A friend of mine in high school said they even played the song for it at his prom. This is unreal. You combine a fairly unknown song from the 90's, with a simple and goofy dance, and you become famous. I just find it absolutely insane.
There are several other examples of social media allowing something so simple to explode. Who could ever forget the Harlem Shake? I do not even know where that originated, but a simple search on YouTube will bring up thousands upon thousands of results. Student sections, graduations. All you have to do is play a certain song, wait for the bass to drop, and start moving your body in a very enthusiastic fashion. I sit here and think about all the time how other countries make fun of us - I understand that, to a degree.
Even something like the "ALS Ice Bucket Challenge." It started as one simple Instagram video. It moved to four people, then twelve, and so on and so forth. In a week or two, it had reached millions of people. Soon celebrities were joining in on the action, and donating large sums of money in doing so.
Social media has changed the world. I know that the old timers like to sit back and mock us about how none of this existed in their time. They only interpret social media as a ridiculous waste of your day. To an extent they are right. If I spent half the time I do on social media actually trying to better myself, I may not be taking summer classes. But sometimes you just have to sit back and witness the power these things have. They start as one simple video. One video out of millions of people on social media. One video can turn into a worldwide phenomena. There is no other way on earth for that to be possible, other than social media.
So my hat is off to you, social media. As time-consuming as you can be, you do accomplish things that leave me and many others in awe. You allow the creativity of one person to be shared by everyone else, and you do it at the swipe of a finger. I am sure the "Running Man Challenge" is just another cart on the social media train. A train, the way I see it, that has no caboose coming anytime soon.
