Proof the Internet Was a Mistake: 10 Stupidest Online Trends

Let’s look back at the viral trends that made no sense

Image by ivanmorenosl

There was a time when the internet felt like the Wild West, except instead of cowboys, we had people willingly humiliating themselves for likes, shares, and the vague promise of being “that person everyone’s talking about for five minutes.”

Trends came in hot, made absolutely no sense, and left just as quickly, often taking dignity with them.

More often than not, no one even remembers who started these stupid trends or how they even came to be.

However, looking back now, it’s hard to tell whether these moments were cultural milestones or collective lapses in judgment. Either way, here’s a tribute to the beautifully stupid things we all witnessed, and in some cases, participated in.

Raw-dogging

While at first, the name of this completely ridiculous action sounds a little kinky, I can assure you it has nothing to do with anything remotely intimate.

Somewhere along the way, boredom stopped being something to avoid and became a personality trait.

Raw-dogging involved people proudly enduring long-haul flights with zero entertainment.

No movies. No music. No distractions.

Just pure, unfiltered existence at 30,000 feet.

The goal? To sit there like a monk in economy and emerge as some sort of emotionally evolved being.

I’ve no doubt that in reality, most people who partook in such a stupid act arrived at their destination slightly unhinged, hopefully intoxicated, but deeply aware of how long a minute can actually feel.

Sounds like torture.

Planking

Do you happen to remember the era where people collectively decided the funniest thing they could do was lie face-down in inappropriate places, and then post an image of their hilarity online?

No surface was off limits; benches, supermarket aisles, strangers’ cars, and even this total moron who somehow managed to plank on top of a McDonald’s sign.

While nothing says “peak intelligence” quite like voluntarily becoming human furniture in public, for the morons who walk among us, the more inconvenient or dangerous the place to plank, the better.

Emergency departments reported several severe injuries from “extreme planking” attempts, including spinal fractures and traumatic brain injuries from falls.

How unsurprising.

I suppose when something is simple, accessible, and requires absolutely no talent, it’s easy to explain its rapid global success.

Owling

If planking wasn’t enough, some deranged people decided to up the ante by perching like owls in strange locations.

The key was to squat silently on objects while maintaining eye contact with the camera.

Why, you and many other people with a full amount of brain cells may ask?

No one knows, but it did confirm that humans will continue to do anything as stupid as possible, while also mimicking wildlife, if given the opportunity and a Wi-Fi connection.

Ice Bucket Challenge

Ok, so this was one of the few trends that managed to be both ridiculous and meaningful.

The idea was for people to film themselves dumping buckets of ice water over their heads, then nominate others, and raise awareness for ALS.

Unfortunately, because the trend spread so quickly, many participants didn’t include any context about ALS at all, so the whole shtick became more performative than anything else.

Be that as it may, I was firmly in the camp that thought if getting slammed by ice cubes and tempting hypothermia was your jam, then carry on — just don’t bring cold, wet feet into my house.

Despite being chaotic, it also proved that sometimes stupidity can accidentally do something useful, and also that if you add just enough purpose, people will happily humiliate themselves for charity.

Flossing

Dentists worldwide would have loved this trend to be about dental hygiene, only to their dismay, this referred to the aggressive, hip-swinging dance move that took over playgrounds and living rooms alike.

It required a level of coordination most adults simply did not possess, which is why so many attempts looked less like dancing and more like someone trying to shake off a persistent insect.

It was very much a dance move that confirmed children have rhythm, and adults absolutely do not.

I can’t imagine how many “hip-cidents” occurred thanks to this craze, but to be fair, it began around COVID, and thankfully ended by the time it came for us to go outside again.

Dabbing

Another pointless body move was dabbing. It was the official move of people who want attention but refused to admit it.

For those unfamiliar, dabbing was a gesture where a person leans forward into the bent crook of a slanted, upward-angled arm, while raising the opposite arm out straight in a parallel direction.

It looked like the person was coughing or sneezing into their armpit, but that didn’t stop it from becoming an online phenomenon.

Apparently, it began from some sort of cultural relevance, but it quickly devolved into something your most embarrassing uncle would do at inappropriate moments.

Uncle Bill; http://gph.is/1qMZ17u

We saw it at weddings, funerals, job interviews — pretty much no situation was safe.

Eventually, the dab became the universal symbol of trying too hard while insisting you’re not trying at all.

Facebook Poking

Before reactions, stories, and algorithm-induced anxiety, there was… poking.

This was a feature that Facebook loved, that served no clear purpose other than to gently notify someone that you existed. It was designed to say absolutely nothing, in the most intrusive way possible.

While it was the digital equivalent of tapping someone on the shoulder and then walking away without explanation, it was also the cause of so much confusion.

Particularly in situations when you’d be poked by your boss, an ex-partner, or someone you’d hoped you’d never hear from again, this digital nuisance gave them a way to embarrass themselves from the comfort of their own homes.

Cinnamon Challenge

Apparently, someone, somewhere, looked at a pantry item and thought, “Yes, let’s weaponise this in the stupidest way possible.”

The Cinnamon Challenge involved people attempting to swallow a spoonful of dry cinnamon without water, and of course, filming it before coughing and/or vomiting, then uploading the messy carnage online.

The concept sounds as questionable on paper as it proved in execution.

The result was usually immediate regret, coughing fits, and a fine dusting of cinnamon across every available surface.

The bizarre point of such a pointless challenge was to watch people go through terrible throat pain as the cinnamon coated and dried their mouths.

Most people wound up spitting a cloud of tan dust in pain and hopefully went on to question their life choices afterwards.

The Condom Snorting Challenge

Just when we thought it was a great idea to hand out free condoms to teenagers, to teach them about the importance of safe sex, along came the proof that if you have some love, sans the glove, you might end up giving birth to a moron who would go on to participate in one of the dumbest challenges to ever exist.

The condom snorting challenge was a viral trend where teens with questionable levels of education posted videos of themselves snorting a condom through their nose and pulling it out of their mouth.

While this may sound like a joke, I remember back when I was at school in the 90s, and knew a Swedish girl who would do things like this with cooked pasta, and yes, even a condom.

http://gph.is/1rigxzq

According to doctors, the biggest risk of performing this feat was that snorting condoms could be a major choking hazard.

You think?!

Another concern was that it could also become stuck in the throat and cause infection.

Despite the risks, many teens, and apparently some Swedes, turned this insanity into viral content, but hopefully by now, they’ve found some safer way to impress others and cheat death at their next beer-drinking binge.

Tide Pod Challenge

And just when you might think snorting condoms was the moment we’d possibly reached the peak of “we’ve gone too far,” a group of the most moronic people on the planet filmed themselves biting into laundry detergent pods.

Ignoring the very obvious fact that they are not, and have never been, food, poison control centres became overwhelmed with calls, because shockingly, ingesting even a tiny amount of what was created to remove shit-stains can lead to serious health repercussions.

I was always fairly confident that none of my children would ever partake in such a ridiculous thing to do, because none of them even know where to find the laundry room, let alone the Tide Pods!

It was, quite frankly, a collective cry for supervision.

While I’m sure that in our futures, the internet, and social media will continue to show us all exactly how many of our brethren are precisely as stupid as they look, hopefully some people can look back upon this list and learn some valuable lessons in pausing for half a second before pressing “post,” questioning whether participation is actually necessary, and recognising that not every moment of poor judgement needs to be documented for public consumption.

If nothing else, these trends serve as a comforting reminder: no matter how questionable current internet behaviour feels, we’ve absolutely been worse.

And we documented it. Enthusiastically.

Now, it’s over to you! Tell me what trends you remember with either fondness, shock or amusement!

Big List Energy is a Medium publication for listicles with opinions, insight, and a sense of humour.

Do you have a list that is sharp, self-aware, and says something real? Then it belongs here.

Come and join us! Check out our guidelines below:

[embed]Big List Energy: Submission Guidelines Want to write for us? Read this!medium.com