Danger is Gen Z’s Favorite Clickbait

Picture credit to @solenfeyissa via Unsplash

The “Free Britney” movement started in 2009, long before TikTok became the biggest time suck of our generation. However, this year, the social media platform grabbed hold of it with #FreeBritney, revitalizing the movement to help Spears end her conservatorship in November. In the singer’s case, communicating with fans in coded messages helped her find a loophole to the silence she was contractually obligated to honor. Coded messages refer to instances where a user published comments like “wear yellow in the next video if you feel unsafe” on her videos, and if Spears wore yellow, her followers knew that she felt unsafe.

While this is an example of how coded messages in viral content can help people communicate with the outside world, a double-edged sword exists within the sensationalization of viral content: searching for hidden messages within viral content can take away from people who are actually in danger and need help. 

A certain set of factors can help a video become “viral,” like having a celebrity endorse or share the content on their platform or using specific trending hashtags to reach a certain audience. However, the content itself can range from a cute puppy to a group of college students dancing, and various types of content can go viral simultaneously because of social media platforms’ complex algorithms that cultivate content for users based on their niche interests. This allows any user to do anything, even lie about their safety, if they think it will gain enough likes and views to achieve “virality.”

Fifteen-year-old TikTok creator, Jenny Popach, reached social media fame with her dancing videos, and she often features her parents in her content. The video usually shows Popach shaking her ass during a dance, and her dad enters into the frame and acts mad at her for doing the dance. For many people, Popach repeats the same formula (i.e. she dances, dad sees it, dad gets mad) because it continues to achieve viral status. However, to many followers and users, this family dynamic appears a bit strange and a little too familiar.

Popach’s followers have recently commented on her videos looking for the same hidden messages with which Spears engaged. They ask her to wear shirts of a certain color to convey her level of safety; they claim she looks distressed in the comment section (i.e. “did anyone else see her mouth ‘help’ to the camera at the beginning of the video?”); and they speculate that her parents seem “off.” These sleuthing users want to uncover a disturbing truth but instead sensationalize Popach’s normal content. The comments caused Popach to release multiple videos stating that she and her family are fine and that her videos do not indicate that she needs help or to be rescued from serious danger. 

This is not a cute look, Gen Z. This current generation prides itself on speaking out candidly about the prioritization of mental, emotional, and physical wellness, and digital spaces have become platforms to share experiences and provide a safe haven for many. But all of this has potential to backfire if trouble is created where it does not exist, just so that someone can fuflfill their Criminal Minds fantasy of being the next Penelope Garcia. As “cool” as hacking the system and saving others from harmful situations seems, assuming that someone needs help based on a 30-second viral video is not detective work. It’s problematic and distracts people from others who are really calling out for help.

Let’s stick to Law & Order to feed our fantasies of solving crime and stop engaging with fifteen-year-old content creators because we think we know their lives off-screen.