With COVID-19 shutting down all NYC public schools and social gatherings, many students find themselves isolated at home, turning to social media in hopes of entertaining themselves. Several new trends have surfaced on various platforms, especially Instagram, as a simple way for students to kill time and connect with friends.
Trends that have circulated Instagram include tagging friends to add to a chain of doodled fruits, post baby photos, do workouts, and share embarrassing photos of themselves. “I liked the drawing fruit trend. People got really creative and it was just fun seeing people’s drawings. Who knew there were so many ways to draw an orange?” senior Katherine Chokpaporn said.
Junior Anika Rahman participated in the “women celebrating women challenge,” which encourages women to tag ten other women to share a photo of themselves in order to spread positivity. “I feel it’s really important to celebrate young girls mostly because they feel so insecure,” Anika said.
Apart from participating in Instagram challenges, Anika also created her own polls on Instagram, asking her followers to choose between different styles and images she posts. “Since the beginning of quarantine, I started doing them because I wanted to know what people preferred out of things that I liked,” she said. “I have always been interested in fashion but never really got to explore that. The polls and the extra time in quarantine gave me that opportunity.”
Another trend challenged participants to do ten push-ups and post it on their Instagram stories. “I think it is a good way to keep people active since we are all cooped up at home every day,” sophomore Audrey Chou said.
Junior Katie Hsu even personalized a bingo board challenge for Harrisites. “Bayside High School was the first I’ve seen to make bingo boards specific to a school. I decided to make one for fun because of my procrastination, ” Katie explained. Since then, many Harrisites have shared Katie’s bingo board on their own stories. “I was so happy that people are enjoying it. I was excitedly checking Instagram every five seconds. Even alumni have started to spread it to the graduated classes,” she said.
Junior Jonathan Hong, however, finds it “tedious and boring to read through so many.” “It’s not exactly the kind of content I want to see around social media, but I understand why people are doing so many in these trying times,” he commented.
Overall, most students agree that these trends are a fun way to stay connected. “They bring a sense of camaraderie among people of a certain group whether it be girls, or a school,” Anika said.
“It’s strange to go from seeing your friends everyday to not at all, so finding a way to stay in touch through silly challenges is maybe what we need during such scary times,” Katherine added. “ Sure these posts aren’t revolutionary, but it’s all in good fun.”
Photos courtesy of Victoria Oei, managing editor & Katie Hsu.
