The Truths Behind Social Experiements Leaves the Internet in Disbelief

By Casey Dyer

Internet star, Nicholas Perry, better known by his Youtube name, NikocadoAvocado, has made waves across the internet for his “social experiment”, where he lost an astonishing 250 lbs in two years, while posting a backlog of videos which made it appear that he was still overweight.

Perry started creating Youtube videos in 2017 as a vegan mukbanger. A mukbang is a video where a person or group of people films themselves eating a large amount of food while talking to the camera. It is a very large community on the internet, and Perry quickly became one of the most prevalent creators in the mukbang community.

After this, the posting on all of his channels began to slow down to less than one video per month. Then, on September 6, a video was posted to his main channel called “Two Steps Ahead”. In this video, he was much skinnier and was even eating less. This was where he fully revealed to the public that his whole channel was a social experiment.

The idea of using the internet as grounds for experimenting and psychological research is nothing new. The internet, especially social media, is the perfect place to learn more about human behavior. 

Despite this, two major questions are usually raised when discussing internet experiments and social media as a whole; does it work and is it safe?

Perry was not the first creator to do things such as this to himself on the internet. Extreme challenges like this have been all over the internet since its inception. Many of these challenges are to make themselves look better or more attractive, which can cause a form of dysphoria for some viewers.

Appearance is a very big thing on social media. Kristen Ortwein, business and computer teacher, said “While [social media] definitely does so and can do even more, overall I think people use it for the wrong reason in today's day and age. Individuals become obsessed with it and it begins to negatively impact their mental health. Comparing themselves to others whether it be looks, life events, etc.” 

This is especially prevalent in youth. Nicole Costello, psychology teacher, said “This is especially harmful for teens, whose brains—particularly the prefrontal cortex—are still developing. The constant need for validation fosters anxiety, depression, body image issues, cyber bullying, and the fear of missing out contribute to poor mental health.”

Someone like Perry losing so much weight, while inspiring to some, can be seen as a challenge to others who hurt themselves trying to replicate the results.

Perry has not revealed exactly what this experiment is attempting to do, but we can assume it has something to do with how people react to certain content. This is similar to the the 2012 Facebook emotional contagion study, where for about a week, a half million people’s Facebook feed was either full of negative or positive content, to see how their moods would change. 

Costello said “The 2012 Facebook emotional contagion study revealed how platforms manipulate users' emotions. Social media’s slot-machine-like reward system creates compulsive use, especially in younger people, impairing impulse control and emotional regulation.” 

Perry created this image that many of his viewers saw as sad, which caused them to give him their pity. This shows what people are willing to do when they see content so erratic and pitiful. 

As a whole, Perry’s experiment is not the first, though it is one of the most interesting to come out of the internet in a while.