Make a real impact with the “10-year challenge”
The “10-year challenge” is the latest trend to fill up social media pages on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Side-by-side collages featuring a decade-old photo up against a new-and-improved (in most cases) photo have left people in awe. In almost all of the challenge photos I’ve seen, people have posted how good-looking they once were, how good-looking they currently are, or how good-looking they continue to be. Bravo! I guess people needed another reason to post a #throwbackthursday photo.
Seeing many of these photos had me thinking – in a time when we often indulge in posting a photo of our most glorious-selves, wouldn’t it be interesting to spark conversation around world issues that have evolved or remained unchanged over a decade? For example, one friend posted a photo satirizing the #10yearchallenge with a side-by-side image of two identical water bottles with a caption that read, “Some things haven’t changed.” What’s up with that? Why are we still producing and consuming water bottles?! A photo such as this can lead to a rich conversation in the classroom.
As such, I tweeted out an idea to introduce a 10-year challenge photo-activity to students around climate, population, or environmental changes over a 10 or even 20 year period.
Photos from then and now can provoke great discussion around why things have changed or why things are still the way they are…however many years later. I would be interested to see what students come up with but even moreso, I would love to see a challenge like this spread across social media to promote awareness around matters that affect our most vulnerable populations and environment. What a great way for students to see how social media posts can be used to flip the focus on others rather than ourselves. Who’s up for the “10 year – take action challenge?”
