Students react to Bird Box Challenge
Freshman Lyn Jarrell is a first year staff writer on the Elkhart Memorial GENESIS staff. She specializes in opinion columns.
January 23, 2019
“Bird Box” is a Netflix original movie about a mysterious force that drives people to suicide as soon as they see it. However, a few survivors make it through, including Malorie, played by Sandra Bullock.
Some people couldn’t watch the whole movie, due to being scared by it, and dealing with the emotional stress caused by the movie. During winter break, tons of fans took it upon themselves to announce their reactions of the movie on Twitter, posting that they had to take breaks during the movie, or couldn’t even finish it.
“Just by the trailers, you can see that it’s going to be good. Definitely going to be the top scary movie of 2019,” junior Kimberly Jarrell said.
“I am a big thriller and horror movie fan,” freshman Kadence Sullenger said. “This movie was definitely a top notch thriller. Ten out of 10. I would watch it again!”
While many viewers expressed their horror online, others expressed their just flat out love for the movie.
Either way, the movie has been such a big hit, that some fans have even gone to the extreme to reenact scenes from the movie, wearing blindfolds and doing their everyday activities.
This became known as the newest challenge trend on the internet: The Bird Box Challenge.
Because of its danger, @netflix issued a warning to viewers: “Can’t believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE. We don’t know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes.”
I don’t understand the point of the challenge. To be honest, it seems way too over the top and too dangerous to even be considered a challenge for anyone. I just don’t see the point, except for hurting yourself or someone else.
— Freshman Isaac Wiedman
The challenge even led to extreme viral videos, such as the “24 hour blindfold challenge” with the participants documenting it all.
One fan took it to the extreme by driving blindfolded on busy roads, resulting in her crashing into another person in their vehicle on the road. That incident happened in Utah, and @laytonpolice took it to Twitter tweeting: “Bird Box Challenge while driving…predictable result. This happened on Monday as a result of the driver covering her eyes while driving on Layton Parkway. Luckily no injuries.”
Youtubers, vloggers, etc. have all been posting videos documenting their participation in the challenge, resulting in many views, causing others to get the idea and do it too.
However, under the circumstances, I guess I can say that I’m not too surprised by this, considering that many people participated in the “The Tide Pod Challenge” and people all over the world participated in it.
In the end, it all comes down to this: if you participate in the challenge, you have a 99.9% chance of not only hurting yourself, but also hurting others. But if you don’t participate, you have a 100% chance of not hurting yourself or others.
I’d advise you to think about the consequences of partaking in the challenge, before you actually do it. It might just save your life.
The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the GENESIS staff. Email Lyn Jarrell at [email protected].
