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In 2013, Dmitry Golubnichy started a personal challenge called the 100 Days of Happiness Challenge. To increase chances that he will actually finish this personal challenge, he made posts public over the social network with #100happydays hashtag. It soon became a Twitter trend that went viral. It requires a person to find one thing each day that makes them happy, for 100 days straight, and to post a picture of the same on their social media. He even created a website for the same (http://100happydays.com).

At the moment, the challenge has been taken by more than 8 000 000 people from 160 countries and territories around the world, and he has quit his job to inspire more people to choose happier living.

He has also given a Ted Talk for the same! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4UtPDaR3cA)

The website claims the following benefits of the challenge:

– Start noticing what makes you happy every day;

– Be in a better mood every day;

– Start receiving more compliments from other people;

– Realize how lucky you are to have the life you have;

– Become more optimistic;

– Fall in love during the challenge.

However, there has been some strong criticism of the movement as well. Major ones include:

  1. Being too materialistic in the process, since a picture would mostly require something tangible
  2. Boring friends on social media
  3. Forcing happiness since it is impossible to be happy for 100 days straight
  4. Feeling a constant pressure and actually feeling ‘unhappy’ if they forgot to post for one day and broke the streak
  5. Making the exercise public, couldn’t let them share the personal, happy moments

It is essential to learn where the challenge emerged from, why was it public and why it helped Dmitry. It is advisable to rather just pick what one likes from the challenge, maybe mold it to one’s convenience as long as the essence of it remains unchanged, which is finding something to be grateful for on your not-so-good days.

 

 Feature Image Credits: Unsplash

 Khyati Sanger
[email protected]

The Kiki Challenge has taken over the internet by storm, and here is how we feel about it.

We know our mind, body, soul, and myringa are in for a delectable taste, every time Drake drops an album. In lieu of his latest album, Scorpion, fans all over the world have a new obsession- The Kiki Challenge.

What is the Kiki Challenge though?

Initially performed by comedian Shaquille “Shiggy” Mitchell, it is brimming in everybody’s Instagram feed! Inspired and cultivated into a different set, it entails the performer to get out of a moving car and dance to the beats of the song, and jump back in, after they’re done, lasting a mere thirty seconds.

This is not the first time the internet has gone bonkers over a challenge. Looking back right from 2013, there have been several sets of challenges, which attract the Gen Z. the ‘ALS ice-bucket’ challenge or the ‘Kylie Jenner Lip’ challenge are a few of them, among  many. We were greeted at the doors of 2018, by the “dame tu cosita” challenge, which had all social media users, even the celebrities trying their luck at it.

We, Indians, also have multiple complications, in all possible ways, that they bring along with them when it comes to entailing and accepting these challenges. It is one step away from being a political debacle.

If taking selfies was not reason enough for multiple deaths in India each year, waive it over to the ‘Kiki Challenge’ to catch up on it. There hasn’t been a case of a death by it, however, the Indian roads are no rescue and definitely not the ideal place to constrict oneself to such challenges. The hype around posting of such similar challenges and percolating down to the sheep crowd is real. Is it a zeal of inner satisfaction, or a five-second pleasure of enlisting your own self in the social media ‘cool’ category? Let’s get into the bits and pieces that go into making these video that last merely for thirty seconds:

  • multiple shots, in order to receive the one perfect one
  • unapprehensive traffic or passerby’s
  • crowd attention, that leads to a fresh set of  re-takes
  • inflicting and suffering an almost round figure of a million injuries (it’s tough getting off a moving car)”
  • saying goodbye to all the safety rules you learnt back in school, leaving beside your ‘moral dictions’,

Fighting all of these hassles, one receives the contentment of having shot it, and receiving appreciation/ hate on social media.

Pop culture has seen its way into the lives of every active social media fanatic. Whether it was a coincidence or a strategic marketing move, its challenges like these which add to the hype and the increment in audience engagement. Even movie trivia has its own set of challenges put up. Recall the ‘beat pe booty’ challenge back in 2016, or the recent ‘PadMan’ challenge, which shook Bollywood and Instagram users to its core. Social media hype can never rest in peace.

Adhering to the severe implications of the Kiki Challenge, States like Kerala and Rajasthan have already set course to issuing public warrants against the performance of the challenge. Does it seem drastic? Yes! Effective? Cannot say! It’s hard stopping a determination so tough and steady.

A recent online ad conducted by Jaipur Police, featuring the staged death of a Kerala man, left us in fits and giggles, but at the same time led us to question the dexterity with which one sets out to perform them. After all, who is it truly affecting? Does it stop the war in Syria, or does it decrease the rate at which the ice glaciers at the North stop melting? Is it a personal gain, one receives by being subject to social media scrutiny? Or is it just adherence to be accepted in the age run around virtual dynamism winning against reality?

Quoting from a famous Indian meme page, “Kiki may not love you, but your parents do!”. Henceforth, don’t go to such extreme lengths to impress a virtual audience. Safety first!

Feature Image Credits:  RedBubble

 

Avnika Chhikara

[email protected]