This appears to be an almost phantom trend: one where the reaction to it largely eclipses the impact the trend itself was having on social media.
There have been trends, though, that have been made up entirely.
In 2019, there was the ‘Momo Challenge’. The original tale said a character with bulging eyes would “hack” into WhatsApp and set children dangerous “challenges” such as harming themselves. Some schools warned parents about the ‘Momo challenge’ and the scary Momo image was subsequently shared because of the panic. But there were no reports of people harming themselves before or after, according to the police at the time.
The reaction from parents and schools though – as well as widespread media coverage – actually ended up triggering the circulation of the scary character, and so may have fuelled the fear rather than the opposite.
“I was at Twitter when the Momo Challenge happened, and I had to explain it to people who were absolutely convinced there was a monster in their children’s YouTube videos instructing them to self-harm. There wasn’t. It was a panic built on a creepy sculpture that had nothing to do with anything,” explains Marc Burrows.
“But thanks to the sort of media that loves a clickbait story, even when they don’t understand it, the panic itself became real. Eventually parents were terrified, schools sent letters home, news outlets ran alarmist coverage and suddenly something done for the lols and appreciated originally on that level is on the actual news.”
Fact-checking website Snopes at the time suggested the story was “far more hype or hoax than reality”.
“The subject has generated rumours that in themselves can be cause for concern among children,” wrote David Mikkelson, founder and CEO of Snopes.