[Warning] TikTok 'Headphone Challenge' Could be Sending a Dangerous Signal

Urian B., Tech Times 09 February 2021, 10:02 pm

One of the most recent as well as most alarming trends to ever hit the popular video-sharing app TikTok is said to be the "headphone challenge." The challenge reportedly has users trying to wrap their very own wired headphones around the midsection of their bodies in order to check out just how many times the wired headphones can circulate.

According to an article by Distractify, the particular TikTok headphone challenge, however, actually promotes negative body images as well as indirectly encouraging the participants to try and lose weight. To see the whole picture, it is important to also understand how the challenge initially started and what is going on with the challenge as of the moment.

What is headphone challenge?

According to an article by The Sun, the popular headphone challenge initially took hold amongst a number of Chinese users of a certain social media app known as Weibo that is quite popular around Asian nations. This challenge is where women would attempt to make records of how many times their headphone cords could be wrapped around their stomachs.

The video started flooding the said site and also going viral showing certain women with minuscule waists all wrapping the headphones not just once but sometimes twice around their whole midsection in order to show how thin they actually are. Not long after, this particularly popular trend started taking hold on TikTok and shortly after, youngsters all over the world started posting their very own headphone challenge. The article by Distractify noted that this would only further the potentially dangerous stereotype towards an even larger scale.

Why is TikTok headphone challenge dangerous?

With the whole body image as well as self-confidence issues becoming a constant talking point all around the world of social media, the rise of the said trend reportedly seems to mock the consciousness of self-confidence itself. Beyond that, the known effects of its widespread appeal have already and still can be quite ridiculously detrimental towards a lot of people who take their very own inability to participate too much to heart.

A particular influencer known as Danae Mercer has also decided that enough is enough with the said TikTok headphone challenge. She then proceeded to speak out openly against the said challenge. She also candidly referenced her very own struggles that came with eating disorders and also pleaded with her fans to stay away and not participate in this particular challenge if they are prompted to do so.

Danae Mercer statement on Instagram

Danae wrote on her Instagram addressing fans that above everything, she still wants to keep this platform still a really happy place. She noted it as a safe spot in a world that can be pretty heavy. She also said that when she sees 8-year-olds all talking about their own diets as well as 13-year olds sharing their own BMIs, and when 16-year-old males all talking about spitting and choking, and even little children trying to wrap iPhone cables around their waists in order to check their size, she has to speak up.