Imagine this: You wake up at 10 a.m., the covers on your bed are tossed to the side as you were tossing and turning in your sleep. You get out of bed begrudgingly and prepare for your day. As you brush your teeth, you decide to go on your phone and scroll through TikTok. On your “For You Page” appears a cute little pug. You watch the video in suspense to see if this pug will stand up straight or flop to the floor, quite like yourself onto a couch after a long day of classes and schoolwork. To your surprise, the pug stands! It seems that today the universe will align so that things will go your way. How can one random dog in New York City determine this? The internet seems to believe this dog can predict the outcome of the day.
The daily routine of most college students here at Muhlenberg was adapted recently based on a TikTok trend that went viral. A little pug and his owner have taken the internet by storm as they’ve created a new daily ritual. Noodle, an old and brittle 13-year-old pug, wakes up every morning with either “bones” or “no bones,” meaning whether he’ll either wake up and stand (then it is deemed a “bones day”) or wake up and flop back down on his doggie bed (which is a “no bones day”). His owner, Jonathan Graziano, started filming his daily routine with his pet and suddenly millions of people were watching his TikToks every day to know whether it is a “bones” or “no bones” day.
Beginning as an app called Musical.ly, users went on the app to record themselves lip-syncing to different sounds. With a name change and bigger platform, TikTok has become the site where average internet users can become famous overnight. Noodle and his owner have fallen into this cycle of trends that continuously captures the attention of internet users all around the world. The impact that TikTok has immensely increased over the past two years, with the pandemic especially. Because we could not connect in person, we sat down in our living rooms and bedrooms and made dances and relatable videos. Something as simple as whether or not a dog has “bones” gets engraved in the routines of society’s youth. Think of those effects on TikTok or Snapchat that “predict the future of your love life,” for example. We’ve let social media influence our lives so heavily that it is not influencing anymore but dictating. Those effects are taken to heart and we become so trapped in the spectacle of the images on social media that we forget what we’ve lost amidst this pandemic: human connection. A cute dog on TikTok should not determine the day’s value, but rather our interactions with the people around us.
This does not mean that this “bones day” trend is inherently negative. Sometimes trends can do some good in society. Using his internet fame, Graziano is spreading a positive message of self-care. As a society, we should focus more on the good and awareness brought up by trends. So, go check your phone and see if it’s a “bones day” or not if you haven’t already. I feel like this whole week has been “no bones” for me. However, instead of sulking, I’ll use it to focus more on taking care of myself. Eating, drinking water and getting proper sleep may be the start to making this week slightly better. Maybe you should try some more self-care too.
