The last few weeks, Instagram has been bombarded with new trends such as the “until tomorrow” trend. In this trend, people post a picture with the caption “until tomorrow” with the intention of taking down the post in 24 hours. If you were to like their post, they would DM you and tell you to post a photo of yourself with the caption “until tomorrow”. Not only is the number of Instagram trends increasing,  but many Snapchat trends have also been on the rise. My Snapchat feed is full of stories that contain riddles in them. If someone gets the riddle wrong, he or she has to post the riddle on his or her story. It is no surprise that these trends have caught on really quickly. 

While many people are indifferent towards these trends, there are many opinions as to whether they are a good way to keep the community connected. I asked a few people about their thoughts regarding these trends. “They’re just people trying to have fun and make something out of what could otherwise be a very sad time,” states sophomore Andre Williams. “I think the challenges are really cute and entertaining. It also shows that quarantine is bringing out the creative side of people,” says junior Michelle Zhang. Junior Tharun Potlur explains, “I thought it was kind of weird when I woke up and saw a million ‘until tomorrow’ posts and I got really confused but I’m glad people are finding ways to spend time during quarantine.”

It’s important that we keep ourselves entertained with what we love, but there is also a point where these challenges can become annoying. “These challenges are designed for the person taking it to fail, and the “rules” force the person who loses the riddle to post it again. This whole thing is a waste of time,” freshman Alex McInnes comments on the Snapchat riddles. At a certain point, the challenges can become irritating and cause people to avoid Instagram entirely. “I specifically told my friends not to include me in the challenges,” states sophomore Ava Mattson. 

If people want to go on Instagram and do these challenges, I think that they should be free to do so, but I also understand the perspectives of people who are irritated by these challenges. If seeing 2endless challenge posts is becoming monotonous to you, I would quit the app and do something else. The outbreak has given us the time to pick up new hobbies, post videos on Youtube, draw, paint, learn a sport, and I think we should take advantage of this opportunity to learn something new and reflect on our lives.