If you have opened up Snapchat lately, you might have seen a few videos of people setting up their phone cameras, moving away from the screen and doing a quick dance move with their hands. This is called the Woah Challenge, and it has been spreading like wildfire.
The Woah is a dance move that was originally made popular by famous rappers like Lil Uzi Vert and Drake. You put both of your hands in fists, one on top of the other, and move them around one time as if you are turning a steering wheel. Most Woah dancers accompany the hand motion with a funny face and a slight bend in the knee. The Woah Challenge has effectively turned this dance move into a meme.
The challenge will come and go the same way almost every viral trend does. Its 15 minutes of fame will last until the internet runs out of ways to keep the challenge exciting. For example, right now, people are propping their camera phones against elevator walls and using the stairs to catch up to the elevator on another floor, where they do the Woah when the doors open.
I am just as much of a sucker for random comedy as anyone, but it’s hard not to wonder how bored we all must be to continue participating in “challenges” like this one. The Harlem Shake was thoroughly overplayed in 2013, and the Mannequin Challenge of 2016 stayed popular until the song “Black Beatles” went off the top charts. The Cinnamon Challenge ended when everyone realized it was just plain dangerous. The Bottle-Flipping Challenge was one of my personal favorites that I don’t see around so much anymore.
The challenges provide new ways to stay entertained by technology. There is a level of interaction involved in doing these challenges with friends. They are fun to act out, but the real fun comes after they hit the web. People post these videos for the same attention and satisfaction that comes from posting anything on social media. For many social media users, there is something that feels good about getting “likes” and receiving positive comments on any post, and challenges are not excluded from this. I wish I didn’t feel this validation from an online activity because I know it cannot truly replace tangible, in-person validation.
These fads might best be categorized as some of the guiltiest pleasures of millennials and Generation Z. Most people, myself included, know the challenges are ridiculous, but we still participate in them anyway.
Sometimes, I feel too sucked into all of the social media trends and pop culture on the internet. In the long run, I know that all of these challenges are unproductive, but the short-term entertainment value is hard for me to resist. I like being in the know about what is happening online, even though it might take away attention from more important things. As soon as the Woah Challenge reached my social circle, a friend asked me what it was. I had no idea, and it piqued my curiosity.
It seems like these trends are here to stay. The best way to make these challenges worthwhile might be to connect them to a cause, like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which raised awareness for Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as ALS. However, most challenges will already go viral before I get wind of them. So long as I keep checking Snapchat, scrolling through Instagram and binging YouTube videos, I will probably keep wasting time on challenges against my better judgment.
Molly Chepenik is a UF journalism sophomore. Her column appears on Wednesdays.
UF President Kent Fuchs hits the Woah with a student.
