#MilkCrateChallenge

[image from hoodclips.com]

There have been many popular trends where everyone wanted to weigh in on becoming part of the crowd. Time and time again, these trends, often referred to like challenges, come and go after a while. Some have played a significant role in raising awareness for specific things. The ice bucket challenge was one of these trends. It helped raise awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis disease and encourage donations and scientific research on the matter. Other challenges have not been so positive, more dangerous than imagined. The newest challenge going around is the milk crate challenge.

The milk crate challenge is a trend that involves stacking multiple milk crates in the shape of a pyramid and testing your balance by walking up to the highest crate and walking back down. Many people have failed at this since it is tough to maintain your balance the higher you get. It is possible to get seriously injured from those heights. This challenge has circulated on social media, especially TikTok, and more people weigh into this dangerous trend. Even the FDA jokingly tweeted that people shouldn't try doing the challenge and instead "enjoy a nice glass of 2% and return all those crates to the grocery store."

On TikTok, the hashtag #MilkCrateChallenge does not exist, and users get an error when they try to look it up. However, the alternative hashtag #MilkCratesChallenge, with an s, has 11 videos linked to it and has not been deactivated by TikTok. But one of those videos does show a message that "the action in this video could result in serious injury." A spokesperson from TikTok stated, "TikTok prohibits content that promotes or glorifies dangerous acts, and we remove videos and redirect searches to our Community Guidelines to discourage such content. We encourage everyone to exercise caution in their behaviour whether online or off." There are also other hashtags like #MilkCrate and #MilkCrates. Many of the linked videos are opinionated and include reactions from verified creators to the videos. There are also milk crate videos on Youtube, although it is unsure from which platform it originated.

Nevertheless, this new trend is a dangerous task to perform since people can get seriously injured. I'd advise not to do this challenge because it puts your safety at risk, and because of the pandemic, there may not be enough hospital beds.