Across the country and indeed the world, kids have been engaging in high-octane boxing on TikTok. Don't worry though, the challengers aren't throwing actual punches and the risk of someone getting knocked out is quite low. Instead of brutal slugfests, kids have been playing the, shadowboxing' game and the craze is fueling tons of views and massive engagement.
The game goes like this: one party will point in a direction, say up, and the other party will have to look in the opposite direction, in this case, down. Then the pointer will quickly point in another direction, say left, and the other party will respond by looking right. If you look where the pointer is pointing, you lose the game. The longer you can go without looking in the same direction, the better.
Originally, in shadowboxing each party takes turns pointing one after the other. However, to make the game more exciting, and funnier (and thus more viral), players have started, throwing combos,, or a flurry of points. Shadowboxing has been around and occasionally gone viral since 2019, but in recent weeks, the use of combos has massively increased its popularity.
While TikTok is certainly fueling the virality of shadowboxing, the game is one of a long line of viral games. In the years before TikTok, kids were engaging in thumb wars or playing the, circle game., With the latter, one person makes a circle with their fingers, if the other person looks at it, they lose (and potentially gets punched on the shoulder.)
While many of the games on TikTok are mostly harmless, a few social media challenges have led to serious injuries and even death. A 13-year-old in Ohio died in 2023 after taking a large dose of Benadryl as part of a TikTok challenge, for example. So go ahead and enjoy a round of shadowboxing, but make sure you keep the games limited to harmless fun.
