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New Trend Of Faking Dead Catching Up On Instagram

Want to be dead? Of course not. Want to get a lot of engagement on your Instagram profile? Well, that would be pretty good. Well, what if you have to play dead if you want a ton of followers or likes? Well, that does not seem that bad.

That is the trend that has quickly got hold of the internet. Instagram users are playing dead so that huge user engagement can occur on their accounts. Today, many users are leaving comments on popular accounts and pictures so that users would visit their account and like or comment on their pictures.

Toxic Pranks

People have found this funny and have made memes out of this new trend, but Instagram takes this very seriously. Instagram has a zero-tolerance policy against posts of physical harm, posts that encourage violence and also photos that contain extreme graphic violence. And according to Instagram, that post contained all that.

But the truth is, not many get the same reaction that they expect, and many who go behind this trend often end up disappointed. Like many memes, it is really hard to figure where did this trend begin from, because being the internet, a single thing can be copied and reproduced multiple times within seconds, making tracking it very hard.

Reasons and Consequences

This new trend is being copied not just by teenagers, but also by those who are in their 20’s and 30’s. But still, the majority of those who have tried this refuse to speak on this on the fear of being judged.

Though pranks are not a new thing in social media, many who are concerned about safety on the internet call this as something that is crossing the line and being toxic. Especially when considering the power of social media, one can never imagine the kind of effect that can be quickly amplified and the consequences that follow.

Many who analyze these trends say that the motivation behind these trends is just human psychological weirdness. Experts also say that the blame cannot be just put upon such social media apps as they are not responsible for this. In their own words. “Negative emotion is much more attention-grabbing, and making someone think that somebody is dead is about as negative as you can get.