If you are a social media user, you may be noticing the newsfeeds are getting flooded with pictures of then and now mostly from a decade ago and now. In recent times, social media has been swamped with viral challenges from ingesting teaspoons of spicy cinnamon to pouring ice bucket over the heads. Challenges with outlandish tasks have been successful in giving a new lease of life to the relapsing social media.
These viral sensations have swept across everyone’s social media accounts be it Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. It’s the best gift to the social media addicts that triggers their want of looking at social media accounts. Viral challenges are the psychological game played well that put social currency to use in the best way which suggests people share and take action in such tasks that make them feel smart, cool and special.
We all are well aware of the #IceBucketChallenge. It triggered the emotional aspect, and the timing was perfect as it started in June. People felt special and overwhelmed that they took action, shared it at large and talked about it. The emotional quotient worked well for it as it was humorous, amusing and triggered anger in some. As to how many of us wouldn’t want a friend to douse himself in an ice bucket?
Hashtags such as #ThrowbackThursday and #FlashbackFriday have been commonly used on social media that claim 45M posts and 13M posts respectively. Now, #10YearChallenge is the world’s latest obsession on social media. #10YearChallenge is a trigger and relapse cycle that’s more than a craving connection.
Join in for #10YearChallenge but, what is it? And how it started? Here’s everything that you need to know.
If you are a dedicated social media user, you have probably noticed people posting a decade long then and now pictures. It’s a new social media craze that involves people comparing their pictures from 2009 to 2019 and sharing it on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Broadly speaking it’s more of a trend that’s going viral on the internet by different names including the “glow-up challenge,” “2009 Vs. 2019” or “How Hard Did Aging Hit You.” According to the current stats, #10YearChallenge has 1.6M posts on Instagram: “Glow-Up Challenge” has 60,000 posts, “#2009Vs.2019” has 113,000 posts and “#HowHardDidAgingHitYou” that boasts 58,000 posts.
However, it’s little unclear as to what led to the start of this viral sensation but, some find it relatable to Facebook’s memory feature that reminds us of the long-forgotten photos, while others suspect it as a new marketing strategy that makes use of social currency(people) for mass outreach. And, some suspect it as the revival of the long-forgotten craze as 2009 was the year when social media truly took off. To justify their point, here’s a study from Mashable that states 2009 proved to be a breakout year for Facebook as 200M new users joined it that enhanced $200M in excess, while Twitter ended with 18M users that represented 3.8% adult users.
Participating in the challenge isn’t rocket science, you need to share two side by side photographs ten years apart that’s from 2009 to 2019. You can use various collage apps available such as Pic Collage that will help you merge multiple images into one.
Get your side by side photos ready and post it on social media channel that you use along with a hashtag #10YearChallenge. Apart from this, you can also choose to post a single throwback image. People are obsessed with the new trend and have been posting their images since last week; however, the movement is quite popular among the A-listers be it Reese Witherspoon, Miley Cyrus, Tyra Banks or Jessica Biel.
Have a look at the recent rundown of some of the celebs who participated in the latest viral challenge and reminisce the good old days through #10YearChallenge.
Here are some of the beautiful stories that are inspiring and heartwarming be it a fitness transformation, acid attack recovery or sickness or enjoyment after prison. Let’s check it out:
Katie Piper is praised for getting involved in #10YearChallenge as she posted her pictures when she was recovering from her acid attack.
Hollie Evans is 11 now. When she was 14 months old, she was diagnosed with leukemia. Given the all clear situation, her mum Hayley Evans shared the picture to show how far her daughter has come.
The decade has proved transformative for the convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby. The 41-year-old took to Instagram to share her pictures side by side when she was behind bars and the one where she is enjoying the beachy breeze out of the prison.
#10YearChallenge didn’t just inspire people to share throwbacks that depict how they have aged so gracefully but, also made them laugh through the pain. Here are some of the funniest memes that are going to make your day. Scroll down to see the ThenVsNow comedy!
"Emerging technology relies on human data, and that means us." - Ms. Kate O’Neill
Is there any subsequent data breaches?
The viral challenge that has been populating our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is light-hearted but, you need to understand the other aspect before you join the crazy parade. There is a critical angle that was overlooked in all the hush. According to author and tech consultant Kate O'Neill, the data gained through #10YearChallenge could be a tool to train facial recognition algorithm that can be used by companies like Facebook and Amazon.
She wrote,
“Me 10 years ago: probably would have played along with the profile picture aging meme going around on Facebook and Instagram.”
She also tweeted,
“Me now: ponders how all this data could be mined to train facial recognition algorithms on age progression and age recognition.”
Her words were nerve-hitting that drew our attention.
We need to reconsider this widespread traction on social media. Within the realms of fun stuff, we may be helping tech giants as a tool to improve their algorithms for biometric identification and age progression.
Moreover, Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica issue is still fresh in people’s mind which impacted millions by hidden data harvesting through profiles without their consent for the political purpose.
Well, people responded to her tweets with concern, and she got more than 10,000 retweets and 20,000 likes. However, experts also have a similar take on the viral craze that gives a critical angle to this fun notion. They claim that #10YearChallenge drops in a giant bucket of data that companies like Facebook had been collecting from a very long time.
To support this claim, Ms. O’Neill wrote,
“We have an awful lot of data that we’re sharing all the time, and companies are collecting it and using it in various ways.”
In an interview with NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro, she presented both the negative and positive consequences if companies tend to utilize this data to improve the algorithms for facial recognition and age progression. Let’s have a look at both the aspects:
Ms. O’Neill speculates that the data can be of great use in the areas of investigation. It would help in finding missing children regardless of the time span since they are missing. Moreover, she points to the use of facial recognition technology in countries like India where it has helped the police to identify thousands of missing children in a few days’ investigations.
According to Ms. O’Neill, the data can also be used against us where she points out the usage in health care and health insurance assessment. In cases when you seem to age faster than your cohorts, you may have to pay more or may be denied coverage.
Apart from this, she also pointed out the past incidents where a data analytics company Cambridge Analytics harvested personal data of 87 million people during the Trump campaign in 2016. She added,
"I want us to have fun and I want us to connect with each other. It just comes with the caution that it has this opportunity to make our lives more difficult and more challenging too."
She also told,
"As long as we're eyes wide open about the full spectrum of those potentials and those uses, then we're going to be in great shape to guide ourselves into the future."
Facebook has a different side over the whole episode of the viral challenge that was appealing in various forms. Facebook denies the involvement over the issue and has given a statement:
“This is a user-generated meme that went viral on its own. Facebook did not start this trend, and the meme uses photos that already exist on Facebook. Facebook gains nothing from this meme (besides reminding us of the questionable fashion trends of 2009). As a reminder, Facebook users can choose to turn facial recognition on or off at any time.”
However, the company does use the facial recognition software and already has access to user’s photos and dates when they were taken and posted.
The viral challenge that triggered evoked different emotions of mankind is coming to an end, and this is the right time to declare the challenging trolls of the first challenge of the new year.
#10YearChallenge, being the week’s biggest trend, took the social media by storm and popped with different stories from memes to sharing pictures showing the change that took place over a decade. Whether the widespread notion was a harmless meme altogether or had a nefarious purpose behind but, it proved to be a boon that was successful in attracting everyone to jump on and gave a new lease of life to social media which was taking its last few breaths.