With the popularity of social media platforms that a majority of the world now enjoys, it comes as no surprise how quickly one out of the norm action morphs into the latest social media trend.

What is cause for concern however is the increasing participation given to a trend that, despite one’s best efforts, can often lead to broken bones, spinal cord injuries or internal bleeding.

In case you have not yet heard of it, allow me to introduce social media’s latest trend, the Milk Crate Challenge.

The trend involves stacking a number of milk crates in a pyramid in order to give it a stair-like shape, where the challenge for the social media user is to walk across all the milk crates without them collapsing under the weight of the person, causing them to fall.

Users’ attempts are often live-streamed or filmed for later social media posting.

Though it is unclear exactly how the milk crate challenge came into being, checks by Our Today suggest that the challenge rose to popularity on Facebook earlier this month when social media user Billy Joe posted two videos of himself attempting to walk across the crates.

Both times, the crates collapsed, with him falling and landing on his back. Combined, the two videos have amassed 750,000 views.

Clearly inspired by Billy Joe, two other Facebook users, Kenneth Waddell and Jordan Browne on August 14 again attempted the challenge in a video that has since amassed over 800,000 views on Facebook.

Since then, the challenge has crossed social media borders and gained significant popularity on TikTok where the hashtags #cratechallenge and #milkcratechallenge have cumulatively reached over 71 million views.

With each new user who embarks on the challenge the desire to appear creative and unique has often raised the difficulty level, posing an even greater risk of bodily harm if the participant falls.

In one viral TikTok posted on August 23, a woman is shown completing the challenge wearing what appear to be four-inch heels.

While it does not appear that the milk crate challenge will be going anywhere any time soon, prospective challenge participants are being urged to think twice about whether suffering serious bodily damage is worth the social media hype.