In recent days, Russian social media – TikTok, especially – has been flooded with clips of people abusing their expensive Apple handhelds for no obvious reason. Apparently, it’s all part of an online trend that began on TikTok (where else?) where people smash, scratch, and pierce the back of their iPhones to make them look more beat-up.
Russian news website Mash reports that the unusual trend was inspired by another TikTok trend where women uploaded photos and clips of their old, beat-up iPhones with the caption “When he has a real man’s broken iPhone 11, not a gay* 17 Pro.”
Allegedly, guys took notice and started smashing their pristine iPhones to give them a manlier look. As you can imagine, some of these attempts resulted in smartphones malfunctioning or breaking down completely, but that has yet to slow down the trend.
Apart from the sheer stupidity of breaking your own expensive gadget for likes and views, experts warn users that cracking the glass back cover of the iPhone 17 will disable the device’s water-resistant features, and that accidentally piercing the battery is a real danger.
