#tide pods
I was born in the wrong generation. Like the older generation (1980-2000), had awesome music, advancement in technology, cool shows, crazy artists, great science, and many more.
And now people eat tide pod.
What have we come to.
By Evan Stewart on January 23, 2018
My gut reaction was that nobody is actually eating the freaking Tide Pods.
Despite the explosion of jokes—yes, mostly just jokes—about eating detergent packets, sociologists have long known about media-fueled cultural panics about problems that aren’t actually problems. Joel Best’s groundbreaking research on these cases is a classic example. Check out these short video interviews with Best on kids not really being poisoned by Halloween candyandthe panic over “sex bracelets.”
In a tainted Halloween candy study, Best and Horiuchi followed up on media accounts to confirm cases of actual poisoning or serious injury, and they found many cases couldn’t be confirmed or were greatly exaggerated. So, I followed the data on detergent digestion.
It turns out, there is a small trend. According to a report from the American Association of Poison Control Centers,
…in 2016 and 2017, poison control centers handled thirty-nine and fifty-three cases of intentional exposures, respectively, among thirteen to nineteen year olds. In the first fifteen days of 2018 alone, centers have already handled thirty-nine such intentional cases among the same age demographic.
That said, this trend is only relative to previous years and cannot predict future incidents. The life cycle of internet jokes is fairly short, rotating quickly with an eye toward the attention economy. It wouldn’t be too surprising if people moved on from the pods long before the panic dies out.
Evan Stewart is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Minnesota. You can follow him on Twitter.
Being horny while asexual (in my experience) is like wanting to eat tide pods: you know you don’t want to do it, you know you will find it unpleasant if you do it, but there’s still that little voice telling you to do it.
So the first time I found out that kids were eating tide pods it was during class a few years ago and I was so lost in the conversation that was happening. I legit was worried because I thought kids were eating baby frogs because I confused it with tadpoles and it took me a hot sec to figure out what they actually meant. I haven’t felt more stupid in my life lol. Don’t eat tide pods people, or tadpoles!
