Time flies over us but leaves its shadow behind. The speed at which things are happening around us makes it hard to keep up. So here is a recap of what happened in 2018 that made us laugh out loud, giggle a little bit, and maybe even facepalm.

The new year – 2018 – started without a hitch, until the next viral challenge struck. This challenge was a food challenge. This first food challenge was the cinnamon challenge. The challenge was to film oneself eating a spoonful of ground cinnamon in under 60 seconds without drinking anything and then  upload the video to the Internet. Like most things, this was not new. The oldest Youtube video documenting this challenge was uploaded on April 2, 2006. However, it gained traction and popularity in 2013.

The challenge was so prevalent this year that Forbes contributor David Kroll saw it fit to write “5 Reasons Not To Take The Cinnamon Challenge.” In this public service announcement, Kroll explains that “cinnamon’s caustic chemical and indigestible cellulose matrix makes the practice particularly damaging to the lungs.” He continues highlighting the medical dangers involved with the challenge, warning that “the British Journal of Industrial Medicine detailed  lung disease and hair and weight loss in Sri Lankan spice workers who process cinnamon quills.”

As bad as the cinnamon challenge was to the health of the kids who attempted it, the latest challenge fad takes this to a ridiculous level. The Tide pod challenge, which first came to light at the beginning of the year, took things to a whole new level. The Tide pod challenge consisted of individuals consuming Tide pods, which are full of cleaning agents for laundry. As absurd and morronic as this sounds, teens actually participated in this challenge.

The story of the abuse of Tide pods was so ridiculous, that you would be forgiven for assuming that this was “fake news” (as I did). It was so preposterous that it seemed just another rumor or meme that had gotten out of hand and was exaggerated. This situation became so prevalent that the Edward Walrod of the  AAPCC (American Association of Poison Control Centers) told Time magazine that, according to data from the AAPCC, there have been “thirty-nine reports of teenagers intentionally misusing laundry pods….during the first 15 days of 2018 alone.” For context, there were 39 cases of intentional misuse of these pods among teenagers in all of 2016, and 53 in 2017.

The trend of misusing Tide pods was growing so rapidly that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission took to Twitter to warn people not to eat Tide pods, It was so bad that New England Patriots player Rob Gronkowski went on Youtube to do the same. It was so ridiculous that Tide had to explain on Twitter that “eating a Tide pod is a bad idea.”