A new mega-trend has emerged on TikTok. Plenty of trends on the app range in levels of quality or enjoyability, however this one is positive and informative. Canadian rapper Dax recently created a TikTok titled “Dear Alcohol” where, for his part, he sings a refrain about the dangers of using drinking to avoid ones own problems, but after he finishes his refrain, it becomes open-verse. Dax purposely made it to be stitched together and added onto by other people who might want to sing about their own experiences with alcohol addiction.

The “open-verse challenge” involves a combination of things that makes it incredibly empathetic and clever. For starters, de-stigmatizing discussion around alcoholism is important. There’s still a lot of pressure to hide it from society due to public shame. Because of this, people usually reject or dismiss the fact that they may struggle in the first place. That ends up causing more hurt for themselves and for the other people around them. Any trend that helps move our cultural understanding of this issue forward is a good one.

If there’s any effective method to talk about a difficult subject in a way that younger people could feel apart of, it would be on a social media app like TikTok. More traditional methods of reaching out (i.e.: emails, flyers, seminars, etc) might be met with resistance from younger people in need of help. The fact that this trend takes place on the app erodes most of the awkward barriers normally present and makes the conversation that much easier to have. It also could inspire them to take this a step further and get even more concrete help.

In the description of a YouTube compilation of these TikToks that Dax posted to his channel (see above), he explains a bit about his motivation: “…lets make an IMPACT with music made FOR THE PEOPLE, spread BY THE PEOPLE…” We think his description perfectly explains the trend's cleverness.