With COVID-19’s quarantine leaving people stuck at home and struggling to find things to do, Instagram has become a platform for many interactive challenges, bringing together friends and strangers alike.

Many of the popular challenges trending on Instagram involve nominating friends to also take part to keep it going.

The spark that started the fire was a challenge that went around started by an unknown instagram user, where girls would post a picture of themselves and tag 10 of their friends to encourage positivity and uplift their fellow women.

With the majority of social media focused solely on the endless coronavirus news cycle and negativity that surrounds it, these shared challenges are offering a positive impact on people’s timelines as they sit at home.

Instagram is full of boredom-breaking challenges varying from posting embarrassing old photos, to pictures playing a sport, to complimenting someone’s best selfie and even videos completing little physical tasks. The positive culture created has given many a way to stay involved with their friends despite the physical barriers.

Social media users have passed on various chain message challenges like “until tomorrow”—where the user must post a photo of them as a child and leave it up for 24 hours.

Another challenge includes “see a pup, share a pup” where users post a photo of their dog and tag a friend. A similar trend branched off for cat-lovers to participate and share their pets as well.

The content shared may vary but the purpose remains the same—to add some joy to people’s lives while they face a lot of uncertainty in this time.

Many of the challenges have been started and passed around by high school and college age students, since campuses across the country have been shut down, leaving students stuck at home and away from their friends.

Student athletes are getting involved as well, sharing team photos and game-time pictures and tagging their teammates to do the same. Many spring sport athletes have lost their season due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, but this is a small way they stay connected and showcase their past achievements despite currently having their season put on hold.

Another active challenge inspired by being stuck at home is the “see 10 do 10” challenge. Instagram users post a video on their stories of them doing 10 pushups and then tag 3 friends who then are nominated to do the same and keep the challenge going.

Naturally one popular trend inspires another, with this explosion of internet connection, people are creating new challenges and prompts and getting their friends involved. The games created have given a more open and casual environment to Instagram as a whole.

As everyone faces challenges during this time—school’s closing, unemployment, stores and restaurants closing, self-isolation—Instagram has offered some fun games that inspire people to get moving, get connected, and spread some joy despite all of the negativity.