Behavior change is hard. Most people haven’t been washing their hands correctly for most of their lives, whether it’s not lathering up enough, not scrubbing long enough (a full 20 seconds) or not even using soap at all, which is extremely important for effective hand washing, as Forbes contributor Nina Shapiro explains.
And sometimes, even if you know how to do it properly, it’s just boring. Now folks on social media are using a couple Twitter hashtags to make hand washing more fun and meaningful.
It’s started with a combination of public health folks, behavioral psychologists and social media strategists challenging others to think about all the people they’re protecting from coronavirus while they spend 20 seconds washing their hands in the #20secondchallenge.
The first two people to mention a #20secondchallenge on Twitter were @brownbearika on March 2 and Mackenzie on March 12. But it really began taking off March 14 with a video from Neil Hopkins, a marketing and public relations business owner in Sussex, UK.
“Washing your hands properly for 20seconds is a great way to stop #Coronavirus,” Hopkins tweeted. “Who are you doing it for? Tell the world in 20seconds and share using #20SecondChallenge!”
After listing the folks he was protecting by washing his hands, Hopkins challenged a couple dozen others to do the same. One of the first to take Hopkins up on his challenge was his mother, freelance writer Barbara Hopkins, who gave a shout out in her video to the “frontline medical health professionals” caring for people around the world.
Comments