Sydnee Walcott
Generation Z has a reputation for being the generation that will do anything for attention (a.k.a clout) some having been living up to that during the COVID-19 outbreak.
On social media young people are often doing outrageous things for views, and sometimes those behind it will end up facing backlash for it.
Remember the ice cream licking challenge last year.
Despite the negative impact of these pranks and jokes, people continue to clout-chase by using the COVID-19 outbreak as a way of garnering likes and views.
Over the years pranks have become very popular on social media. But in a recent study, Perception of Pranks on Social Media: Clout-Lighting, published in November 2019 by a group of professors from different universities these pranks may not always be great because of the affects that it can cause the victims to have.
They describe clout-chasing as being specifically designed to gain social media engagement by by baiting people who are unwilling and uncomfortable with pranks or jokes.
Since the start of the outbreak jokes were being made about the virus with some people joking about how the virus came from the drink, Corona.
The jokes started to take a different route when a man on a flight to Jamaica joked about having having the virus and causing the flight to head back to Toronto while in mid-air.
And things continued when in the coming days people continued posting videos on Youtube of people pranking others saying they have COVID-19.
In early days of the “meh” videos people were claiming that a relative actually had the virus, but then some were licking subway poles during the pandemic.
YouTubers, such as Thee Mademoiselle, made a video addressing those who are taking advantage of the pandemic just for some clout and expressing her disguise in what they were doing.
“If people are talking about something, it’s trending and you make a video about it, you’re going to get more views which equals more money. But there are some things you just don’t touch,” she said in the video.
Tens of thousands have died, places the world are declaring a state of emergency, and the outbreak taking a toll on the mental health of many.
This may be a time for people to think about what they chose to do for likes.