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If you’re anything like me, you might have been aimlessly scrolling through your Instagram feed one night only to suddenly be bombarded with picture after picture, all with the same bizarre caption - “until tomorrow.” If you’re anything like me, you had absolutely no idea what was going on. I remember sitting there thinking, “What am I missing? What do all these people know that I don’t?” I’ll admit it - for a short period of time, I started to panic thinking maybe this meant the world was ending tomorrow, and this was the bizarre way I was receiving the news. Fortunately, the answer to these mysterious, cryptic captions was a lot simpler, much more lighthearted, and quite frankly, a great deal more obvious than the rash conclusions I was jumping to. Evidently, the meaning behind the two words was simply a viral challenge that my entire friends list seemed to be engaging in - a challenge to post embarrassing pictures of yourself that you could not delete until...tomorrow. Anyone who liked the post would then receive a message instructing them to keep the trend going.

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While this is where the viral challenges started, it is certainly not where they ended. In a time where the whole world has seemingly shifted their lives online, it is apparent that one thing that is keeping people occupied are silly, social-distancing-certified challenges and games posted on social media. Along with the “until tomorrow” challenge, several other trends have emerged on Instagram and other social sites. From the See 10 do 10 to the 30 Day Song Challenge, Instagram has transformed alongside the world during quarantine, raising an important question: has social isolation motivated us to change the way we use social media?

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If you are an active Instagram user, you have likely noticed the same changes I have. Posts and stories that once shared friends socializing, fun activities, and travel destinations have been overrun with viral trends. Stories are now consumed by “Draw Something” challenges, “See a Dog, Send a Dog” posts, and bingo board templates. At first, these challenges were a major turn off for me. I found myself getting annoyed and quickly scrolling past them or logging off Instagram altogether. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized something - this is not ​just ​a result of boredom, this is how we are connecting. ​This is the new normal.

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IU sophomore Delaney Nidiffer said she has been participating in several of these viral challenges, including “Draw Something” and “See a Dog, Send a Dog.” She noted that upon leaving campus and returning back to her permanent home, she turned to social media to stay connected and to see what her friends were doing during quarantine. These challenges have offered a way for them to stay connected, no matter how many miles apart they are. “If I get tagged in a challenge, it means someone was thinking of me and that feels good, so I tag my other friends to let them know I am thinking about them, as well,” she said. “It’s fun to think about how far a challenge can travel via social media.”

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Nidiffer said that while she started participating in these challenges out of boredom, she realized they also have a positive effect on social media. “It’s a really uncertain time right now, and people are finding themselves stressed and with a lot of time on their hands. Doing these fun little challenges helps not only to kill time, but also helps to keep social media a positive place,” she said.

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In an instant, we went from being able to talk to our friends and peers face-to-face on a daily basis to being limited to electronic communication devices. Suddenly, social media has transformed from a distraction from reality to our connection with reality. It is hard to tell what the implications of this change will be once this is all over. Will social media immediately return to its former state? Will the end of social isolation signify the end of the challenges, games, and trends? At the least—even if the viral challenges morph back into friends socializing, fun activities, and travel destinations—I hope we remember this time of dependency on media platforms for communicating and connecting and use it as an opportunity to grow and to better ourselves. After enduring social isolation and the feelings of loneliness, uncertainty, and anxiety it has generated in us, I hope we will remember to appreciate the people around us and the privilege of not being separated by a phone or computer screen.

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The fact of the matter is, in light of social isolation, we had no choice but to find creative ways to connect with each other. This is a unique moment in human history in which we are feeling disconnected from our former lives and from each other, so now more than ever, we need the reassurance that we are not alone. As cliche as it may sound, these viral challenges and games serve as reminders that we are all in this together, and they center around universal activities and habits that we can all relate to. So while the new wave of social media trends may take some getting used to, if this is the way we manage to stay united during a time of fear, uncertainty, and isolation, I’m up for the challenge.

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See the challenges here!

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