Transcription
Some internet and social media trends are stupid, some are dangerous, and some are both. These are what we're going to dive into. These are the worst internet trends still happening today.
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Swarming. This trend is awful because it doesn't affect those doing it. Instead, it causes problems for random people who just happen to be nearby. The trend has different names depending on who you ask. Some call it swarming or steaming. Others call it teen takeovers, but the idea is the same.
>> Social media calls for mobs of young people to show up at shopping malls with the goal of causing total chaos.
>> People use Tik Tok and Snapchat to gather hundreds of teens in the same place at the same time. It could be a store, a fast food spot, or even a parking lot. And they all show up for one reason, to cause trouble.
>> Is it advertised as a let's come cause chaos?
>> For the most part, yes. That's what it appears to be. It's it's bring your drama.
During these swarms, people become rowdy and the property is damaged. But this trend isn't new. It traces back to a crime from years ago. In the early 2010s, flash mob robberies started happening. Groups would rush into stores, grab what they could, and run. Because there were so many people, the staff was overwhelmed. It was impossible to stop or identify any of the culprits. There are reports of flash mob robberies happening as far back as 2011. At the time, people used text messages and early social media to plan raids. But today, technology just makes it much easier. Now, a single post can reach thousands of people in minutes. A location is shared, a time is set, and a crowd shows up.
Organized on social media, a wave of spur-of-the-moment meetups, has been creating chaos in American cities and has even spread overseas. Shop owners have little time to respond. They could only watch as their items were stolen. Sometimes stores shut down early to stay safe.
>> But many restaurants had already locked down their doors and sheltered in place inside.
Swarming spread to multiple countries, including London, Australia, and Canada. At that point, it stopped being just a trend. It became a public safety issue. As the incidents increased, police began to take them seriously. The goal was to stop swarming before it started. So, officers monitored Tik Tok and Snapchat for planned swarms. When police found out that there was a takeover planned here, they started adding more resources like this.
>> In some cases, police arrived too late. Crowds already formed and stores were overwhelmed. In those situations, officers arrested people who refused to leave. And even after the crowd cleared, police reviewed CCTV and body cam footage. They used it to identify and arrest those involved. Sometimes they released the footage so the public could help. Some parents who discovered their children took part even turned their kids into the police. But in the end, business owners were the ones affected the most. Swarming made it harder to run their stores. Stores that could afford it added more security. Others closed early when they saw crowds forming outside. It became one of their biggest headaches. And the problem is they don't recognize the financial and economic damage they're doing to that community.
>> Unfortunately, there's no clear way to shut down this trend, especially because there's no clear leader. It's just a group of troublemakers acting at the same time. Swarming is still happening as of today. And as long as social media makes it this easy to organize, we don't know when it will end.
Our next chapter is about creators who found a way to go viral by filming people at their lowest point. Poverty tourism gone wrong. This trend is straightforward. Creators and influencers film people in tough environments and post it online. Sometimes it looks like kindness or spreading awareness. But for some creators, their real goal is to make the video go viral. And the worse the situation looks, the better the video performs.
In late 2025, YouTuber Pete Z posted a video titled I Survived India's deadliest slum. Pete traveled to India and spent 3 days in one of the largest slums in the world. The video went viral for all the wrong reasons. First, people were offended by how Pete described the area. He emphasized police corruption, violence, and robberies. They also accused him of turning the misery of people into entertainment. Reporters called it poverty tourism. It became a global story. Despite the backlash, the video stayed up. It was offensive, but not illegal.
But this next creator named Keith Castillo took things much further. In 2025, Keith was struggling to get views on his video. So, he came up with a new idea. He would film himself giving gifts to random homeless people. I mean, that sounds like a good thing, but the gifts weren't actually gifts. Instead of food or warm clothes, he gave them inappropriate and harmful items. Castillo titled his video, "Keeping the homeless in the streets." Viewers felt the idea was unsettling. It implied that encouraging harmful habits would only make their situation worse. Many people hated it.
>> That looked like a horrible clickbait antic that he was engaging in.
But Keith brushed off the backlash. He said he spoke to police and was told it wasn't illegal. When they asked him why he did it, Keith said he was following trends that he saw other creators doing. It was all for views.
>> He also didn't seem too concerned with handing out alcohol to potential substance abusers, saying, "Honestly, I don't care, bro. It's good for the clicks and views, you know."
But as the backlash continued, he claimed the video was just a skit. He also said he took the harmful items back after filming. Since then, Keith has not repeated this kind of content, but the trend unfortunately lives on. Keith's video looked like an act of generosity, but it was the exact opposite, calling something one thing when it's clearly another.
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This next chapter is about a health hack that fooled millions of people, the garlic trend. This trend promised to solve a problem millions face, but the solution did more harm than good. It was called the garlic in nose trend, and it started gaining attention in 2021. A woman with a blocked nose decided to try a health hack. She filmed herself putting a clove of garlic into her nose. Then she left it there for about 10 minutes. When she pulled it out, her mucus came out and the garlic looked like it cleared her nose. Blocked noses affect many people. And this looked like an easy fix. Thousands of people started trying it. It even made it on the news. And almost every time they did this, the same thing happened. They pulled the garlic out and mucus followed. It quickly became a Tik Tok trend. More than 94.9 million clips were shared on Tik Tok with the hashtag garlic and nose. Many Tik Tok trends are reckless, but this one seems safe and helpful. Garlic is natural after all. Some Tik Tockers even caption their videos, "This is not dangerous. The garlic just cleans your sinuses out." But that wasn't true. This hack was actually risky. People just didn't realize it. And behind the scenes, problems were already happening. One Tik Tok user said she massively regretted trying this trend. She pulled the garlic out after just 1 minute because her nose started burning. But even after removing it, the irritation lasted for a while. Another person had it worse. The garlic got stuck inside her nose and she ended up in the hospital. Doctors had to suction it out. But people still didn't think the trend was a problem. After all, it looked like it was clearing mucus. That's when doctors stepped in and they shut the idea down. They said the mucus coming out wasn't a good thing. It was a sign that something was wrong. Doctors explained that the mucus was a sign of irritation. Garlic contains harsh compounds that can irritate the inside of the nose. The body wants to expel the garlic and its chemicals, so it creates an overflow of mucus to flush out that irritant. That's why so much comes out at once.
>> The bowl towels and garlic can actually burn the mucous membranes of the nose.
Doctors warned it could lead to infections. Even with all these cases and warnings, the trend is still around. Doctors are still warning people to stop. It seems to come back every flu season because it looks like an easy fix. But in this case, this cure can leave you even worse.
Up next is a trend that made homeowners fear for their safety. The door challenge. The door kick challenge started in 2021 as a prank. College students kicked dorm room doors to scare their friends. But by the end of the year, it got worse and spread to neighborhoods. Teenagers would kick the doors of random houses and run away. The people inside didn't understand what was happening.
Either a car had hit my house or somebody was trying to break in, which seems pretty stupid since my truck was right here in the in the driveway.
Most homeowners thought someone was trying to break in, but when they came outside, no one was there, only a damaged door. Police quickly identified it as the latest Tik Tok trend.
>> They go up to this house, and you can see it from the security camera. They go, they kick the garage, they run away, and uh turns out they actually damaged the garage.
>> The media picked up the story. Teens actually recording themselves kicking people's doors and authorities are worried they could be putting themselves in some real danger.
>> Homeowners were getting angrier. Some made it clear they were ready to defend their homes.
>> Didn't think about, you know, there's definitely reactions to actions and he didn't think about what could have happened. You know, it could have it could have just that quickly gone that bad.
At that point, it was only a matter of time before something unfortunate happened. In December 2025, a teenager in Florida picked the house for the challenge. The door swung open instantly. The good news was that the homeowner wasn't inside, but her dogs were. One of them was a Yorkshire terrier named Spooky. With the door open, Spooky ran into the street. By the time the owner got home, the door was broken and her dog was gone. She searched everywhere, but by the time she found her dog, Spooky didn't make it.
>> Look, this is this is not a joke that you guys can't can just go around kicking people's doors and not being held responsible for it.
The community was outraged by this. Police launched an investigation. A few weeks later, they arrested the person who kicked the door open. He was charged with felony burglary and criminal mischief. But even after the incident, the trend didn't fully end. New incidents are still being reported.
This next trend told people to do something most of us were warned not to do as children. Sun exposure. A Tik Tok trend claimed you could improve your health in a strange way. The trend was called sun eating. Sungazing is an ancient Egyptian practice that will drastically improve your life on all levels mentally, physically, and spiritually. People were told to expose their eyes to sunlight for 5 to 10 seconds every day, but only during the first or last 15 minutes of sunlight. Influencers claimed that time was the safe window.
>> Not only is it safe, but it will improve your eyesight, improve your endocrine health, uh improve your sleep cycles.
By late 2023, the trend was already popular online. Tik Tockers shared videos trying it for themselves. And they couldn't stop talking about the endless benefits of this ancient practice.
>> It gives you natural energy, which is what they don't want you to know. That's why they tell you not to do these things.
Some even claimed it could help with weight loss. Thanks to these claims, this trend had over 70 million views on Tik Tok. People treated it like a miracle cure. There was one big problem. There was no scientific proof behind any of it. Doctors were the first to sound a warning. The main problem was obvious. Direct sunlight is too strong for the eyes, especially the retina. The retina plays a vital role in helping us see. And unlike many parts of the body, it does not heal on its own. Doctors published articles and made videos to correct the misinformation, but the influencers doubled down.
You've been told sunlight damages your skin, but sunrise and sunset light actually restructure your cells to operate at a higher frequency.
That kind of messaging kept the trend alive. Dozens of people, including grown adults, continued doing it. The outcome was exactly what doctors warned about. Someone learned the hard way. In 2024, a college student visited an eye clinic. She noticed a blind spot in her left eye. Doctors asked what happened, and her explanation left them speechless. She said she tried the Tik Tok trend. She was in the sun for less than a minute, but that was too much. Scans showed her retina was affected. Sadly, it was permanent. Her case was later documented in a medical journal. Even stories like this didn't stop the trend on Tik Tok. More videos kept coming, each one repeating the same promises. In 2025, scientists looked into the trend. They wanted to see if it was as amazing as people claimed. But after all the research, they found no reliable evidence supporting the benefits. But the trend is still around. Every few months, new videos pop up promising the same exaggerated benefits. And whenever it returns, new people are exposed to the same risk.
Our next chapter is about people who thought they found a smarter way to work out, but doctors called it one of the most reckless trends they've seen. Dry scooping. Around 2020, Tik Tockers came up with a new way to drink preworkout powder. Instead of mixing it with water, they swallowed it dry. Then they went straight into working out.
>> If you don't know what pre-workout is, it kind of gets you pumped up. And I don't like to drink it.
They had a reason for doing it this way. They claimed that eating it dry would reach the bloodstream faster. That would lead to more energy and better performance in the gym. The idea sounded convincing to people scrolling online, but there was no scientific proof that it was better or safer. Despite that, dry scooping became popular.
It's workout time and everyone's been taking a pre-workout on my for you page.
Many people didn't experience any side effects, but for some, it landed them in the hospital. In April 2021, a 20-year-old woman tried the trend on camera. She took a full scoop of preworkout powder and went to the gym. But during her workout, she felt a weird sensation.
>> My symptoms were heavy chest and chest pains, but I ignored it and I continued doing my workout.
It continued throughout the day. She was rushed to the hospital and doctors confirmed it was her heart. They told her she was lucky. It was only a partial blockage. They warned that a more severe blockage could have far worse consequences. Her story got a lot of attention online and even on TV. So, this woman ended up in the hospital after taking the dry scoop challenge. But after that alarming case, the trend did not slow down. Dry scooping became so popular that researchers looked into it. They realized people didn't understand what they were doing.
>> Dr. Shanny says the trend is a bad idea for a number of reasons.
Free workout powders contain high levels of caffeine, and dry scooping changes how that caffeine enters the body. Instead of being diluted, it hits all at once. you're taking upwards of three and a half times the normal amount of caffeine that you would get in a cup of coffee.
That sudden surge can trigger serious reactions.
>> So, they're getting a large portion of caffeine in one setting. When you do that, it increases the blood pressure substantially.
Eventually, Tik Tok banned the trend. Dry scooping videos were removed from the platform. But once again, that didn't end the trend. People still promote it on YouTube and Instagram, and there is little sign that the trend is going away.
These trends prove that common sense sometimes isn't so common after all, especially on the internet. But at least I know you guys are smarter than that. Visual venture. Wait, before you go, make sure you guys watch part one of this series. We talk about people who rubbed beer on themselves instead of sunscreen. a challenge where teens threw frozen balls at strangers and Tik Tockers who robbed a bank because they saw it on their for you page. Click right here to watch it. Love you guys. Peace.