The COVID-19 pandemic has caused most of the world to self-quarantine and practice social distancing by remaining at home. After less than a week of being held up in our homes in order to protect ourselves and our families from the virus, boredom quickly took over the minds of many people. Even worse, many people began experiencing serious withdrawals from being able to hang out with friends or interact with anyone else outside of their homes. What solution did they come up with?…#24hour Instagram challenges of course!
Ever since coming home after spring break due to Fairfield University’s closure and moving to online classes for the rest of the semester, I have noticed a serious increase in Instagram usage from the people I follow. I have even seen an increase in my own Instagram usage (which is also partly because I now run The Mirror’s Instagram account too….give us a follow! @fairfieldmirror). A major reason for this spike is the Instagram challenges that have been circling through the social media platform ever since this pandemic caused us all to social distance and refrain from interacting with others in-person.
The first challenge that got my attention and the first one I participated in was about spreading positivity among women and building each other up by posting a photo of yourself and then tagging other ladies to share a photo of themselves in order to spread the beauty and positivity! The next challenge I was tagged and participated in was filling out the “My Favorite Things” template with gifs! This one was cute and fun to put together:) The only other challenge that I was tagged and participated in was filling out the “Disney Favs” template which was so appropriate because I was just in Disney for spring break! Don’t worry…by now I have completed my two week self-quarantine after traveling, so we are good!
Of course there are way more Instagram challenges out there, and honestly I’m disappointed no one has tagged me to do more of them. I have seen some more extreme challenges that I probably wouldn’t want to do, such as the “see ten, do ten” pushup challenge. Most of my followers probably know that I haven’t done a single pushup in probably three or four years, so that is not a challenge for me…thank you followers!
There’s also this new challenge, that I’m not even sure is an actual challenge but simply something people are doing voluntarily, which is the “until tomorrow” posts where they post a collection of unattractive photos and short videos of themselves that probably should have remained hidden in an album on their camera roll. I don’t understand these posts, but I do have to say that many of them gave me a good chuckle, which is needed in such a crazy time as this. I also have to give the people who post them some credit for being so brave.
My point of talking about these Instagram challenges and trends that have risen during this truly life-altering time is that I find it inspiring that we are still doing whatever we can to connect with people. I don’t think anyone thought a month ago that this is what our lives would be like, which is a scary thing to think about because we now realize how quickly things can change. I think the Instagram challenges are a great and creative way for us to still connect with each other and they also get our minds off of the current situation, even if it’s just for five minutes when you’re scrolling through your feed or tapping through stories.
What we need now, more than ever, is people working together to battle this horrible virus that has turned almost the whole world upside down. I keep thinking about all of the different struggles that people are experiencing right now, including ourselves, due to all the different ways that this has changed how we operate in our daily lives and what we can access.
Practice social distancing, obey your state’s precautions, stay home and away from others if you are sick, wash your hands and follow all the guidelines that will help us beat this virus. Most of all, I hope that you and your loved ones all stay safe and healthy…and keep Instagrammin’!
Leave a Reply