Beware The Chromebook Challenge Panic

Issue #343 | May 22, 2025

Over the past few weeks, parents, educators, and adults across the country have been in a full-on panic over an alleged TikTok “challenge” called the “Chromebook challenge.” The alleged challenge consists of students inserting metal objects into their school-issued laptops to cause damage and make them spark. But like many social media panics, there is a lot of nuance being lost in the discussion of this content.

First of all, there is no “challenge.” TikTok does not issue challenges, nor do users of the app issue them. There is a viral audio clip right now on TikTok called “F students are inventors.” The audio features a clip of a well-known hustle bro influence, Ben Azoulay, known on TikTok as @kingazoulay, praising students who are bad at school.

Azoulay delivers a motivational monologue claiming that students who receive F grades are inherently more creative and destined to be inventors. A students, he says, are “perfect employees.” B students are managers. F students, however, are destined for greatness.

The clip sparked a trend where users paired the audio with videos of students engaging in chaotic or destructive behavior, often in school settings. The joke being that the actual F students are basically idiots, and their “inventions” usually consist of sticking a pencil into a Chromebook to make it spark. The Media came across these videos and declared them to be a “Chromebook challenge.”

But many of the videos associated with the audio are old. They’re repurposed content from YouTube and even old Facebook videos, uploaded for shock value rather than as part of any sort of organized movement. While some videos are authentic, and some students are actually messing with their computers or causing trouble, it’s crucial to recognize why these videos are taking off.

Apart from being funny, shocking, and entertaining viral content, the “F students are inventors” trend is evidence of the pervasive feeling among many high schoolers that nothing matters and school is a joke. Owen, a 16-year-old student from New Jersey who goes to school in New York City, said, “I think ultimately the trend is just this reflection of boredom. I wish there was something more to say about it. The truth is we’re just bored in school, and some people have a harder time dealing with that. They choose to be more destructive.”

Brandon Cardet-Hernandez, President of Mrs. Wordsmith, an ed-tech company focused on literacy, and a former school principal, said that rather than freaking out and pushing the government to ban TikTok, parents and educators should ask themselves why so many kids are disengaging with the educational process and don’t feel attachment to school.

“Obviously, we don’t want any kid destroying property,” Cardet-Hernandez said, “but [this trend] is also really interesting data for us to be like, what are we doing that’s building this relationship where kids don’t care about the things that are here?”

Cardet-Hernandez says that it doesn’t mean excusing the behavior, but it does mean actually talking to kids rather than blaming social media. “It doesn’t mean there are no consequences,” he said. “But we have to hold a bit of curiosity about the institutions we’re creating, the culture we’re creating, and the way these kids are responding to that culture.”

– Taylor Lorenz, Passionfruit Contributor

PLATFORMS

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IN THE BIZ

A massive trove of 184 million records, including Apple, Meta and Google logins, was discovered.
Airrack is offering up a $100,000 position through his “YouTube’s greatest editor competition.”
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LABOR

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PERSONALITIES

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UPCOMING EVENTS

TwitchCon Europe is May 31-June 1 in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
VidCon is June 19-21 in Anaheim, California.
Open Sauce is July 18-20 in San Francisco, California.
Creator Economy Live is August 5-6 in New York City, New York.

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

Is culture leaving us behind or is there still hope?

Standup comedian Jarrett Moore seeks to answer this question in his video essay, “Cultural Nihilism and the Rise of The Grifter,” which explores what he refers to as the deterioration of Hollywood. Check it out below.