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The #IceCreamChallenge, as it is now known, is just one of many social media trends in the last two years in which people (mostly young people) have done questionable things and documented them online .
What happens in the minds of people who do these things? This is what impulsive teenagers and young adults are doing to attract attention to the social media era, experts say.
"This is only an older version of antisocial behavior," said Susan Whitbourne, professor emeritus at the Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "It's an antisocial act, and it goes beyond the bounds of proper social behavior."
They licked the ice cream
"We do not intend to lay charges against him as" "and, therefore, what happens here is at the discretion of the juvenile justice system," Lufkin police said in a statement.
They licked the depressants of the tongue
And ice creams are not the only thing people find licking. A new version of the "licking" challenge has attracted attention this week when a social media video of a young girl grabbing a tongue depressor into the office. a dentist in Jacksonville, Florida. The girl licked it and put it back in the jar.
His mother, Cori Ward, 30, admitted to having recorded the video and posted it on Snapchat, authorities said. She was charged with a crime, having tampered with a consumer product. She faces up to 30 years in prison if she is convicted.
They do it to show
Why do young people take such risks – and then put a video on social media? An expert explained that it was only a high-tech version of teens showing off for their friends.
"In general, adolescents are both more reckless and more sensitive to social assessment than children or adults.The acts you describe seem to lead me at once," wrote Laurence Steinberg, professor of psychology at Temple University. E-mail. "Our research has shown that teens are more likely to take risks when they are seen or believe that they are seen by people of the same age."
This type of antisocial behavior occurs frequently in people under the age of 30, Whitbourne said. And throwing in social media only makes things worse.
"To this rebel component of the behavior adds the anonymity provided by social media and the disinhibition that it allows," she said. "Once posted, these postings will generate some reinforcement of the company (that is, tastes and tastes), and so the behavior will spread."
They do it for the "I like"
She compared this with kids walking around a neighborhood and throwing garbage cans, but the difference with "licking challenges" and other social media challenges is "the factor of attention".
"For many, Facebook is an extension of offline social interactions," wrote the authors. "The" likes "seem to be a powerful indicator of social status, so some Facebook teen users are trying to upload photos of themselves that garner the maximum of" I like " and delete photos containing too little " I like "."
Or they'll just grab a carton of chocolate ice cream, lick it and post the video online for their friends to cheer on.
Parents must discuss
What can parents do to prevent their children from doing such reckless things? Steinberg says that there are not many of them.
"There is not much to do for parents, if it is to remind their teenagers that social media materials are easily accessible to everyone (not just their parents). supporters and their friends) they are there forever, even when the teenager thinks they've been shot, "he said.
"As a result, the publication of information about delinquent or criminal activities, or about other antisocial behavior (such as hate speech) can have quite harmful consequences." Teens tend not to overly thinking about the future consequences of their decisions, so it's good for parents to have a discussion (or several discussions) about it. "
Whitbourne agrees that parents need to have one more discussion with their teenagers (and sometimes even with their young adults).
"I think it's all part of the parents' conversation on social networks," she said. She suggested to be a little empathic when sitting down with your teen or young adult children and talking about it. Ask them to imagine that they are the customer who bought a container of tainted ice cream.
"I would ask them," How would you feel if you bought an ice cream and discovered that she had been licked? ""
Probably disgusted, like the rest of us.
Michelle Lou, Emanuella Grinberg and Wilfred Chan from CNN contributed to this report.
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