About

30 Day Challenges are lists on blogs and social networking sites that users follow for 30 days, and dictate what they will post, usually following a theme. Each day of the challenge is a different criteria for what they will post, like their favorite song or a photo of them. Many of these challenges require users to post facts or information about themselves that will allow their friends and other users to get to know them better.

Origin

The concept of single-themed serial art projects has existed prior to the emergence of microblogging services and social networking platforms, perhaps most commonly as part of curriculum or class assignments in art education. As early as in 2006, graphic designer Michael Bierut^[7] has been instructing a workshop course called "100 Days" at the Yale School of Art, which requires each student to create a body of work over the span of 100 days. On the web, there has been similar projects and community games like the Hourly Comic Day and Photo a Day Challenge.

The original 30 Day Challenge was posted by Tumblr blogger Zachintosh^[1] on February 25th, 2010. Since the upload of original post, it has accumulated nearly 2,000 notes (as of June 2011).

Day 01 -- your favorite song
Day 02 -- your favorite movie
Day 03 -- your favorite television program
Day 04 -- your favorite book
Day 05 -- your favorite quote
Day 06 -- whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 -- a photo that makes you happy
Day 08 -- a photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 -- a photo you took
Day 10 -- a photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 -- a photo of you taken recently
Day 12 -- whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 -- a fictional book
Day 14 -- a non-fictional book
Day 15 -- a fanfic
Day 16 -- a song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 -- an art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 -- whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 -- a talent of yours
Day 20 -- a hobby of yours
Day 21 -- a recipe
Day 22 -- a website
Day 23 -- a youtube video
Day 24 -- whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 -- your day, in great detail
Day 26 -- your week, in great detail
Day 27 -- this month, in great detail
Day 28 -- this year, in great detail
Day 29 -- hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 -- whatever tickles your fancy

Spread

The 30 Day Challenge instantly became a widely participated Tumblr meme. In June of 2010, the single topic Tumblr "Heck Yeah Tumblr Challenges!"^[2] was launched to archive and keep track of various 30 Day Challenges on a daily basis. As early as in August 2010, the challenge posts began to circulate on Blogger^[3] and YouTube^[6] as well.

Some challenges would span more or less than thirty days, eventually leading to the creation of challenges like the 100 Day Photo Challenge. As more variations continued to emerge, the serial post challenge spread to other social networking sites like Facebook^[4] and Dailybooth^[5] in late 2010 and January 2011.

Notable Challenges

• 30 Day Photo Challenge
• 30 Day Song Challenge
• 30 Day Letter Challenge
• 100 Day Photo Challenge
• 30 Day Pokemon Challenge
• 30 Day Anime Challenge
• 30 Day Disney Challenge
• 30 Day Art/Drawing Challenge
• 30 Day Book Challenge
• 30 Day Harry Potter Challenge
• 30 Day Zelda Challenge

External References

^[1] Tumblr – Oracular Spectacular: 30 Day Challenge

^[2] Tumblr – Heck Yeah Tumblr Challenges!

^[3] Blogger – DoomAngelKitty: 30 Day Challenge

^[4] Facebook – Search Results for 30 Day Challenges

^[5] DailyBooth – Search Results for 30 Day Challenges

^[6] YouTube – 30 Day Challenge: Day 1 – Favorite Song

^[7] Design Observer – Five Years of 100 Days