TikTok is home to trends that range from harmless fun to outright dangerous, and the latest one—”dropping things on my feet”—falls somewhere in between. The viral challenge has users intentionally dropping objects on their feet, from lip gloss tubes to dumbbells, and rating the pain on a scale of 1 to 10. While it may seem like just another bizarre internet fad, the trend, dubbed ‘Amialivecore,’ taps into a deeper cultural moment—blending humor, self-inflicted pain, and existential angst in a way that’s uniquely Gen Z.
“Amialivecore” was coined by Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick in his Substack, The Trend Report. It is a portmanteau of “Am I alive?” and “core,” and it encapsulates the latest manifestation of TikTok’s ongoing obsession with existential malaise.
@jamesforemann What shall I drop on my feet next for part 3!
♬ original sound – James Foreman
What is ‘Amialivecore’?
Fitzpatrick wrote in his The Trend Report post, “The sequel to (or evolution of) last year’s Vibe Personality Disorder, it’s not difficult to connect the dots: this is a reaction to our ongoing, near-ritualistic dehumanization by industry and broligarch overlords and our inability to reconcile with our innate mediocrity or inability to rise above economically or socially, in a world where you’re forced to work at work and work while out of work all to stay locked into the 99%.”
In other words, Amialivecore is less about masochism and more about reclaiming agency. If our lives are consumed by work, social media, and the crushing weight of capitalism, then at least the small, stupid act of dropping a hair brush onto your bare foot provides a micro-moment of control.
Speaking to the Daily Dot via email, Fitzpatrick wrote the trend is “the logical extension of content creation, which is similar to that “parents saying brain rot” and kids spitting out water trend.”
He posits the format “pushes into this territory of ‘Am I alive?’ as the core element for me to “Ami I alive?” is its tether to a literal cause-and-effect, that there has to be a corporal manifestation to validate an experience, so people can see that you aren’t acting, that a physical property changed.”
@brookemonk_ ♬ original sound – Brooke Monk
The Memeification of pain
In practice, Amialivecore involves TikTokers purposefully dropping items—ranging from tubes of lip gloss and water bottles to much heavier objects like dumbbells—onto their feet, filming their reactions, and sharing them online. Some wince, some laugh, some let out a cry of pain, but the prevailing sentiment is clear: in a world that often feels numb, even minor self-inflicted pain for memes can serve as proof of life.
As with any TikTok trend, humor plays a crucial role in Amialivecore. Many participants exaggerate their reactions for comedic effect, and others have turned it into a challenge, testing the limits of what they can endure.
Amialivecore’s rise aligns with an ongoing cultural shift toward ironic, self-aware nihilism. In an article for Medium, Jessica Tsang wrote of Gen Z and the current trending behavior that “existentialism and nihilism go hand in hand when it comes to Gen Z. Though the two philosophical movements are different (existentialism concerns the meaning of existing and its variability person-to-person and nihilism believes that life is meaningless), Gen Z simultaneously believes in the meaningless of life and the thought that life is what you make it.”
In an era where genuine sincerity is often met with skepticism, pain (especially the kind you willingly inflict upon yourself) feels like one of the few universally understood human experiences. It’s a reaction to burnout, economic anxiety, and the general sense that we are all running on fumes, what Fitzpatrick has described as “a fitting and awful metaphor for today, in a world that is increasingly painful but seeks to minimize and ignore said pain.”
This “taking things too far” has understandably sparked some concern. While most participants keep it lighthearted, a few have dropped heavy televisions or weapons on their feet as part of the TikTok trend. But for many, Amialivecore isn’t about genuine harm; it’s about finding fleeting moments of sensation in an increasingly desensitized world.
“The bottle-on-foot trend is about self-harm that one seeks to minimize and move on from, to show that you’re a strong person too,” writes Fitzpatrick, though it simultaneously “normalizes more extreme actions for attention, which is very much of-these-times.”
@3.lie.g Dropping things on my feet but they get progressively worse gone wrong #middlenamemason ♬ original sound – Middlenamemason
So, if you see someone dropping a can of soup onto their foot in your feed today, don’t be alarmed. They’re just checking in on reality.
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