--- title: 'Extreme Phone Pinching' Challenge Goes Viral description: The anxiety-inducing trend involves holding your phone with just your thumb and forefinger over somewhere you wouldn't want it to fall. canonical: https://time.com/4065242/extreme-phone-pinching/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-07T21:20:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:00.038Z og:title: 'Extreme Phone Pinching' Craze Will Make You Super Anxious og:description: Keep calm and leave your phone in your pocket og:url: https://time.com/4065242/extreme-phone-pinching/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Extreme Phone Pinching' Craze Will Make You Super Anxious twitter:description: Keep calm and leave your phone in your pocket twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 'Extreme Phone Pinching' Is a New Internet Craze That Will Make You Super Anxious ## Video: Tech Time: Everything to Know About the iPhone 6S [Watch (HLS stream): Tech Time: Everything to Know About the iPhone 6S](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mGmugY5H.m3u8) (1:56)  _Published 2015-09-17. Tech Time: Everything to Know About the iPhone 6S_  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 7, 2015 9:20 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 7, 2015 9:20 PM UTC Over the years, we’ve seen many Internet crazes come and go. From [planking](https://twitter.com/hashtag/planking) to [Tebowing](https://twitter.com/hashtag/tebowing) to [extreme selfies](https://twitter.com/hashtag/extremeselfies), the people on the World Wide Web have shown us that they’re capable of making pretty much anything into a fad. Now, inspired by a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=15&v=gltUuLxZLBM) released by the band Twenty One Pilots, social media users are turning “extreme phone pinching” into the latest viral challenge, according to [CBC News](http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/extreme-phone-pinching-challenge-gets-people-to-destroy-their-iphones-for-attention-1.3257914). The anxiety-inducing trend involves precariously holding your phone with just your thumb and forefinger over somewhere you really wouldn’t want it to fall. A few tamer examples of the craze include dangling your expensive smartphone over a balcony or in the gap of a sewer drain. Although some go to much more daring lengths to show how risky they’re willing to be with their precious gadgets. > [](https://twitter.com/momma3llama/status/620383243465027584) > [](https://twitter.com/AllisterLane/status/620724237410664448) So if you’d like to spend the rest of the day nervously sweating, feel free to peruse the hashtag [#extremephonepinching](https://twitter.com/hashtag/extremephonepinching) on Twitter or Instagram. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4065242/extreme-phone-pinching/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4065242/extreme-phone-pinching/"},"headline":"'Extreme Phone Pinching' Is a New Internet Craze That Will Make You Super Anxious","datePublished":"2015-10-07T21:20:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:00.038Z","description":"Keep calm and leave your phone in your pocket","url":"https://time.com/4065242/extreme-phone-pinching/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Social Media","Internet","Technology","viral","iPhone","Instagram","Vine","cell phones","internet culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4065242/extreme-phone-pinching/","name":"'Extreme Phone Pinching' Is a New Internet Craze That Will Make You Super Anxious"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Tech Time: Everything to Know About the iPhone 6S","description":"Tech Time: Everything to Know About the iPhone 6S","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/mGmugY5H/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-17T20:50:51.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mGmugY5H.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4065242/extreme-phone-pinching/","duration":"PT1M56S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4065242/extreme-phone-pinching/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```