First drink, last drink TikTok challenge goads teens into harmful trend


The First drink, last drink challenge has racked up more than 50 million views across different videos on TikTok. Photo: Getty
A TikTok drinking game is encouraging binge-drinking among teenagers, said a Melbourne academic.
Participants in the TikTok game record themselves having an alcoholic drink, and follow this up with recordings of more drinking until their final one for the night.
Participants usually appear intoxicated, sometimes slurring their speech, in the final recordings.
First drink, last drink began as a humorous challenge at wedding receptions, some of which have garnered millions of views.
But it has morphed into a dangerous trend that lures teenagers into showing off how many drinks they can consume.
‘‘It’s really encouraging drinking culture and binge-drinking, which we know has significant physical and mental health impacts for everybody, including young people,’’ Deakin University associate lecturer in communications Emily Wade said.
‘‘We know that young people model themselves from what the adults around them are doing, and so the same goes for social media … it would have started as something quite harmless.’’
‘Art’ imitating life
Ms Wade said trends such as First drink, last drink were an extension of activities that already feature in the day-to-day lives of many adolescents.
‘‘The important thing to remember with these trends is … they are not unique to social media,’’ Ms Wade said.
Many of those taking on the challenge were already part of drinking culture, she said.
‘‘A lot of the risks involved are about that encouragement of behaviour that is a harm to our health and, of course, when people are intoxicated they’re more likely to do things that impairs their judgment,’’ she said.
‘‘These challenges don’t happen in isolation, as we know binge-drinking is a problem outside of this challenge.’’
The First drink, last drink challenge has racked up more than 50 million views across different videos on TikTok.

While fun, the game encourages risky behaviour, says a Melbourne academic. Photo: AAP
What is the appeal?
Ms Wade said social media challenges gain traction rapidly, because of their competitive aspects, and they tap into an innate human desire to connect with other people.
‘‘It’s another form of connection with friends because we’re doing that in a social setting,’’ she said.
‘‘Because it becomes a game and it’s fun and it’s competitive, we as humans love fun and we love things that are competitive … most of us can be engaged by different aspects of competition.
‘‘As soon as you make … something that is fun into a challenge … you immediately get higher engagement because a lot of us want to be part of that.
‘‘It’s about keeping the conversations open as much as we can … with our children and with students,’’ she said.
‘‘Talk to them about things that come up, because as we know, a lot of these challenges don’t happen in isolation.’’
TikTok has come under fire before; just last month the video-sharing platform was criticised about a challenge in which users broke into Kia vehicles.
Ms Wade said global social media platforms had essentially absolved themselves of the bulk of the responsibility for these sometimes life-threatening trends.
‘‘They will put all the onus on users … so they try to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the actions that users take,’’ she said.
‘‘Social media platforms have to take more responsibility.
‘‘They do have some responsibility. They don’t necessarily own that responsibility at the moment and it’s a space to watch in terms of legal developments in different places.’’