21 Most Popular Social Media Challenges
Social media became a savior for a lot of us. Some of the social media challenges were so entertaining that they got viral instantly. Let’s look at some of those social media challenges.
With the sudden outbreak of the CORONA virus in our lives, a lot of things around us have changed or we can say a lot of new things were introduced to us that were not there, or even if they were there not many people followed them in their lives like wearing a mask was never compulsory but with this pandemic, it became an absolute necessity. Similarly, sanitizing everything and washing our hands for 20 seconds became the “New Normal”.
We all became afraid of meeting people or going out in general. Social distancing and staying at home became important for our own survival. This pandemic has definitely taught us the value of slow living and just surviving because before this we were so busy in our fast-paced lives that we forgot the importance of survival. Many people who were busy in their lives working all day and night didn’t have much time for themselves and their dear ones. But with the outbreak of this pandemic, many things changed as people started staying at home, started spending more time with their family members, and started doing more fun activities together.
These activities then got spread on social media as challenges and people started taking up those challenges with their family members and friends. It also kept them connected and kept them stay away from boredom. So, we can say that this pandemic definitely came with both boons and banes. Initially, people got really confused as to how to stay at home for such an extended time but gradually they got conversant with this new lifestyle.
It also made us understand the importance of our family members, our own selves, cleanliness, hygiene, and also shifted our focus from wants to needs. During this time when we all were stuck at our houses and didn’t have to go outside social media was flooded with a lot of “social media challenges” that not just entertained us but also kept us a little busy during this pandemic.
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Top 21 Social Media Challenges
Social media Challenges #1 – Doodle Challenge
As the name suggests this challenge is about doodling. A person has to put a sheet on a person’s back and another sheet has to be placed in front of that person. Now, one has to doodle or draw something on the sheet that is attached to the back of the first person, and then this first person has to draw the same thing on the sheet that is put on his or her front side. This first person has to draw just by feeling the hand movements and the gestures of the other individual who was drawing in the back sheet. While reading it might sound confusing but while doing it is quite an interesting challenge.
Social media Challenges # 2 – Don’t Rush Challenge
This challenge got really famous on social media as this was creative and fun at the same time. One had to cover the camera with a brush for few seconds after showing their non-makeup look with jammies or robes on and then once the brush was removed, they had to show a full makeup look or a glam look with glammed up outfits and then they had to pass the brush on to the other person virtually.
This was quite a fun social media challenge which the crowd loved a lot. After “pass the brush challenge” many similar challenges were taken up on social media inspired by this challenge like “pass the phone challenge”, “pass the pocha challenge”, etc. Celebrities like Storm Reid, Skai Jackson, Riele Downs, Marsai Martin, Eris Baker, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Lexi Underwood, Kyla Drew Simmons, Prajakta Koli, etc. took up this challenge on social media.
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Social media Challenges #3 – Don’t Leave Me Challenge
The idea behind this challenge was to share a horrible joke or a P.J and then run away from the camera shouting “Don’t Leave Me”. This challenge was all about how lame can an individual’s joke be. This was a very funny social media challenge enjoyed by the crowd madly.
Even A-lister celebrities like American Grammy award-winning rapper, Tyga, Nigerian rapper and actor, Falz The Bahdguy, Nollywood actress, Funke Akindele, Nollywood veteran, Kanayo O. Kanayo, Nigerian popular female DJ and Apple Music radio host, Florence Otedola aka DJ Cuppy, Bollywood Actress and dancer Nora Fatehi, etc. took up this challenge on social media and showed their hilarious side. This challenge got really famous and made us all laugh our hearts out.
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Social media Challenges #4 – Drop Challenge
This challenge was inspired by Shaggy’s track “Banana”. In this challenge, an individual has to appear in front of the camera wearing sunglasses and then drop the sunglasses while doing quirky moves. There are many versions of this challenge like dropping a banana challenge, dropping the cap challenge, etc. This was fun to do the challenge and many celebrities participated in it like Mariah Carey, Kendall Jenner, Ryan Reynolds, etc.
5. Social media Challenges #5 – Dalgona Coffee Challenge
Well, this is one such challenge that everyone was aware of. We could see the rage of this everywhere from Tik Tok to Instagram to Facebook to everywhere on social media. Those who knew nothing about coffee making even they tried their hands on making the famous Dalgona Coffee.
This was a food trend that was followed everywhere by everyone. There are so many tutorials on YouTube on how to make Dalgona coffee which proves how popular it got instantly. This trend was first popularized in South Korea and then it got spread globally. From being a food trend, it became a social media challenge that most of the people participated in.
Social media Challenges #6 – Pillow Challenge
This was for all those fashion lovers who love to experiment with their looks and outfits. In this challenge, one had to convert or wear their favorite pillow as an outfit. Sounds Interesting? Cool, it was quite easy as well. One had to take a pillow and just put a designer belt around it and voila a brand-new outfit was ready to flaunt. People took so many pictures of this and posted their pictures on social media. Some people felt that this challenge was bizarre but the fashion junkies loved to take up this challenge.
7. Patience Challenge
This was a very cute and mean challenge at the same time as the parents had to put a lot of candies in a bowl in front of their kids. The kids were told not to touch the candies until the parents are back. The parents left the candies’ bowl in front of the kids and went out to test the patience of the kids.
It must have been so hard for the kids to resist touching those candies but to our surprise, most of the kids passed the test as they waited patiently for their parents to return but few could not resist and just took the candies anyway. We can’t complain as this was mean to stop the kids from eating their favorite candies. It was also adorable to watch those little ones waiting patiently for their parents to return. It just made us go Awww.
8. The Savage Challenge
The song by Megan Thee Stallion, Savage, was the inspiration behind this challenge. The song became quite a rage on social media and thus The Savage Challenge came into the picture. As a part of the challenge, people had to do a definite dance routine on the Savage song which was a combination of freestyle dance.
The dance moves involved hip movements of a different kind to meet the beats of the song. It got popular when the remix version of this song was taken up by Beyonce as a challenge. Many celebrities then took this challenge up.
9. The Super Bowl Challenge
When the two legendry singers JLo and Shakira got featured in the “SuperBowl” ceremony where their dance moves were choreographed by the Royal Family themselves. It got viral because of the extraordinary and beautiful moves. People went crazy and took this challenge up and started moving their bodies
Many A-listed celebrities took up this challenge like Jennifer Lopez, Sanya Malhotra, Mithila Palkar, Sandeepa Dhar, etc. One can understand the rage behind this. When Shakira and JLo are a part of something it is obvious that it is going to get viral.
10. Bin Isolation Outing Challenge
This is quite an interesting challenge which was started in Australia by Danielle Askew, a kindergarten teacher from Hervey Bayand then it got viral. This social media challenge is all about dressing up in one’s favorite superhero or fictional character like Disney characters and then taking their trash to the curb.
This was a fun social media challenge that people loved to do as they got a chance to dress up as their favorite characters during the pandemic where people were mostly wearing jammies and regular indoor clothes. Also, it is so different to dress up for taking the garbage out. Sounds interesting.
11. Between Art and Quarantine Challenge
This challenge was for all those creative people who love to do jugaad and DIYs. The art and museum lovers could experiment with anything that was available in their homes or was convenient for them to alter and use. All they had to do was to replicate their favorite artwork like the famous Monalisa painting or any other famous artwork on their own selves.
12. Beauty Mode Challenge
During the lockdown, people were mostly chilling at home in their pajamas with no makeup on. So, the TikTokers came up with this bright idea of using the beauty mode on their TikTok app to transform their looks from a non-makeup look to a full makeup look.
In this challenge, people came in front of their cameras and turned on the beauty mode with a song or a dialogue in the background and then turned off the beauty mode. That made the video very interesting. Many Bollywood celebrities took up this challenge like Neha Dhupia, Amyra Dastur, Jannat Zubair, etc.
13. Wipe it Down Challenge
In this challenge, the song “Wipe It Down” by BMW Kenny plays in the background and a person stands in front of a mirror and the video begins with the person wearing an outfit and then they wipe down the mirror and appear in a new look with a different outfit.
Then they continue to wipe the mirror down and go back in the original outfit and then come back to another outfit and this goes on for some time where the song keeps playing in the background. Many a-listed celebrities took this challenge up like the famous YouTuber Lily Singh, JoJo Siwa, Will Smith, Jason Derulo, etc. A fun challenge where Lily Singh just nailed it.
14. Gesture Challenge
This challenge was introduced to us in the initial days of 2020. In this challenge, one had to imitate the emoji gestures to a fast-paced background track using one’s own fingers. This is a Tiktok challenge where the users had to imitate the series of hand emojis that appeared on their screens. Our Instagram feed was flooded with this challenge as this one was available as a filter on Instagram
Many people found it really complicated but it wasn’t as complicated as it felt. This challenge was also called the Hand Emoji Challenge. Celebrities like Nick Jonas, Kevin Jonas, Alia Bhatt, Ankita Konwar, Jacqueline Fernandes, etc. took up this challenge.
15. Flip the Switch Challenge
This challenge was inspired by the 2018 Drake song “Nonstop”. In this challenge, two people stand in front of a bathroom mirror and film themselves.
One person stands closer to the mirror filming while the other person stands further from the front and the other person who was standing at a distance usually danced. In this viral social media challenge, people even switched clothes, poses, and sometimes, even attitudes when the lights would switch off and then back on. This was fun to do challenge and celebrities like Sameera Reddy, Jennifer Lopez, and Camila Cabello.
16. Until Tomorrow Challenge
In this challenge, the users of Instagram had to post a silly photo of themselves on their Instagram page, with the caption ‘Until Tomorrow’. Now, the trick was that if an oblivious browser double-tapped on the picture, he or she used to get a DM from the person who posted it to participate in the challenge.
The photo had to stay up on their Instagram feed for the whole day before it could be deleted. This was quite a daring challenge to participate in. Also, the people who double-tapped on the picture got trapped unknowingly.
17. Vogue Challenge
This challenge was started by an Oslo-based student named Salma Noor after she tweeted an alternative cover of herself under the caption “Being black is not a crime.” Noor posted the image as an anti-racism protest and gradually this challenge got viral internationally. In India, TikTok stars started editing photos of themselves onto the cover of Vogue magazine. It gave all the budding fashionistas, makeup artists, and creative people a chance to showcase their creativity. Everyone had their own take on how the cover should be, hence all of us got to see so many amazing and different ideas. This challenge got viral internationally and many people took this challenge up which was super creative.
18. OhNaNa Challenge
This challenge was started by a little 6-year-old girl named Aliyana Symone Alvarez or simply “Ali” who is the niece of Maja Salvador’s boyfriend Rambo Nuñez. This challenge got popular because of the famous song “Oh Nanana” which is a collaboration between the Brazillian music artists Bonde R300 and KondZilla.
This dance routine is fun, crazy, and quirky which can leave anyone feeling like a dancing pro. Celebrities like Raveena Tandon took to Instagram to share the video that she made with her daughter Rasha taking up this dance challenge.
19. ‘Who is More’ Challenge
This is a very interesting challenge for which there should be at least 2 people. It can be done with friends, siblings, cousins, parents anybody who knows each other. This is a fun challenge in which some super fun and quirky questions are asked by the individuals present and they have to reply instantly like one can ask “who is more likely to wake up late”? and both have to reply instantly.
This challenge is a great way of involving our near and dear ones and enjoying the time with each other. Many celebrities took this challenge that entertained all of us like Sara and Ibrahim Ali Khan and Amrita Singh, Janhvi and Khushi Kapoor, Tahira Kashyap and Ayushmann Khurrana, Neha Dhupia and Angad Bedi, etc. It was fun to watch them take up this challenge and many people followed them and had a blast after taking up the challenge.
20. Your First Move Is Their Last Move Challenge
This challenge was a fresh and fun one that could involve all the family members or whoever was staying together. In this challenge, participants had to convert their living rooms and kitchens into makeshift nightclubs and stand in line to dance randomly.
The first person had to begin with a move that was replicated by the second person, who then added an extra move for the third person to do and thus, the chain continued. Many celebrities like Dabboo Ratnani took up this challenge with his entire family which was fun to watch. Anyone can take up this fun challenge with their dear ones and have a blast.
21. Trick Shot Challenge
As we all know a trick shot is played usually on a billiards table, a shot that seems impossible or requires significant skill. This challenge was Inspired by FISU athlete Sara Meden, who had used the FISU Instagram account during the #FitAtHome campaign in April 2020. In this challenge, the objective of the participant was to land the shot despite all the obstacles.
In this challenge, people had used ping-pong balls, kettles, saucepans, and many other household items that were placed meticulously on the floor, in an attempt to score a goal. This challenge was quite silly but boredom can make anyone opt for these silly challenges that turned out to be fun. Celebrities like James Harden also took up this challenge.
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Conclusion on social media challenges
Those were few social media challenges that got viral during the lockdown that we all had to face. This pandemic occurred out of nowhere and made all of us sit at home for months which could have become torture for many of us. But with these social media challenges happening we could keep ourselves busy creatively. It also brought out many hidden talents that people had.
It also made us aware of hygiene, cleanliness, family values, our own importance, and a lot more. These challenges were fun and engaging that’s why people got attracted to them. Before the pandemic and the lockdown also there were many social media challenges that took place and got viral-like “The Planking Challenge” which got viral in the year 2010-2011, “The Tebowing Challenge” in the year 2011, The Harlem Shake Challenge, The Ice Bucket Challenge, The Cinnamon Challenge,
The Running Man Challenge, The Mannequin Challenge, The Kiki Challenge, Women for Women challenge, etc. These challenges are nothing new and they have been happening for quite some time now. I think most of these challenges are fun and doable. These challenges have kept us entertained thoroughly and you too can get creative and start a new trend or challenge on various social media platforms. Let’s experiment and try and create new and different challenges that are fun to do.
