Reddit Dares You to Press This Button

Push to restart the clock—no one knows what happens when it hits zero
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 16, 2015 1:00 PM CDT
Reddit Dares You to Press This Button
Press it. Or don't.   (Reddit)

Depending on your willpower and how much time you have to sit and stare at a countdown clock instead of working/sleeping/interacting with humans, you might want to head over to Reddit to check out "the button." In an online social experiment that promises to both fascinate and irk everyone who gets sucked in, the site inexplicably posted the button on April 1, with only a few sparse notes about what exactly the button is and what to do. The timer will count down from 60 seconds, but every time someone presses the button before it hits zero, it resets back to 60 and starts the countdown all over again, Time magazine notes. "You may only press the button once," the instructions on the site warn. "We can't tell you what to do from here on out. The choice is yours."

Not everyone gets to press: You need to have created a Reddit account before April 1. Time reports a handful of people have waited till a record low time of 0:27 before pushing, though Chris Stevens, a teen from England who's created a rather insane website to compile the button's stats, notes a record low of 0:26. Nearly 760,000 people had already pressed the button by 2pm ET today. The comparison Time makes to the LOST button was inevitable. What's also inevitable: that the clock is going to eventually run down to zero, when all eligible account holders—or at least, all those who want to press the button—eventually use up their presses. And what happens once the clock hits zero? No one's sure, though there are plenty of theories on the Reddit thread. (There's a new button Amazon wants you to press.)

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