Social Media Challenges/Dares/Competitions

Ok, so I have sat around watching from the background for far too long. I know I am not a famous person, I know that a lot of people won’t read this, and I know that there will be a lot of people who have different opinions. However, for my own personal mindset, I feel I need to write something.

All of these new, and exciting challenges that are coming to light in the recent years, really have me thinking of how many children, teenagers, young adults, and adults have actually never had anyone take the time to explain what is really going on with these types of challenges, dares, competitions, or whatever else you may have been exposed to. 

In my own personal experience, I was lost in a very negative place, for a very long time. Yes I went through tough experiences, people did crappy things to me, but that didn’t give me the right to lash out on others. . Being in that negative place, I let anger, fear, pain; sorrow, ego, and self-pity control me. It has taken me 30 years of my life to finally be able to look back at the pain and damage I was actually causing other people. Because I was miserable, I had to make other people miserable, or I had to control every situation I was in. I put up walls and pushed people away, put them on a pedestal, or pushed them into the ground with my words and actions. I preyed on the weaknesses of others, and I sought out other predators to make me a continuous victim. I was renewing the e cycle of pain and negativity over and over again.

That is why, in my perception, these videos are so harmful to other people. I see the pain in their eyes, and that pain has turned into anger and sometimes without even realizing it, these individuals are trying to hurt themselves, or trying to make other people hurt themselves. In the electronic, online life that we live in today, it is so easy to get attention. And if you are not getting positive feedback or attention, negative attention is so much more appealing than no attention at all.

In my own personal life, I do my best to share positive attention, and affirmations with everyone who passes me on my journey. I do not share those videos or challenges on my own social media, because many people do not understand that by sharing them, people are trying to show the dangers of these types of situations, but a lot of people lost in pain are only seeing the attention and shares that these types of challenges are getting. And so they feel they must do the same, and the challenges get more and more dangerous. There are so many teenagers who are dying because of this repetitive cycle. I wish others would focus more of talking about the dangers, instead of showing the activity.

I don’t know if anyone is still reading at this point, but for those who may be stuck in this cycle of pain and negativity, please know that there are others out there who understand. They may not understand the exact details of your story, but they can surely relate to the feelings of uselessness, pain, self-pity, fear and anger that you are experiencing. Please reach out. There are people that love you!!!