Crate challenge stupidity ... Doctor warns against dangerous social media dare

Tiffany Taylor

STAR Writer

The latest social media challenge is crushing all the fun, leaving its participants seriously injured. It's called the milk crate challenge, where persons are tasked with climbing wobbly crates that are stacked as a podium. The aim is to climb to the top of the crates and then descending without falling.

Videos have been circulating online, with persons reaching atop the wobbly frame and tumbling on to the crates hitting their heads, backs, neck or arms. One video, seemingly captured in Jamaica, suggests that the crazy stunt has now reached the country's shores. Psychologist Dr Leahcim Semaj is urging Jamaicans not to partake in the dangerous act.

“The first thing comes to mind is a quote from Albert Einstein. Einstein says that whereas genius has limits, stupidity has none. Here’s a case of stupidity having none. There are a lot of people with a lot of time on their hands and they’re bored and at the same time, let's say they are stupid because certain things, what do you win if you do the challenge? So, what you are trying to, you're entertaining others but at your own risk. I've seen some people who have fallen in some precarious way, fallen straight on to one of the crates on the middle of their back. People are going to get hurt as a result of this,” Semaj stressed.

The psychologist said most of the participants involved are under 30 years old and from a neurological standpoint, not until age 27 is the pre-frontal cortex of the brain fully developed. He explained that this part of the brain is vital in making good decisions.

“Until then, peer pressure, the pressure of the moment and all type of irrational thinking take place and especially one of the factors that govern social media, whereas in real life, when you're about to do something stupid, one of your friends will tell you ‘Don’t’, on social media you are encouraged otherwise,” he said.

Semaj told THE STAR that more persons will get hurt if they are not discouraged away from the challenge. He is urging social media users to remind individuals that it is not worth it and there is nothing to be gained if they complete the challenge ‘successfully’ and there is everything to lose if they should lose balance and fall off the crates, hitting the spine and damaging the back for good.