By Staff WriterOriginal Source: soberinfo.comYou may have noticed a new trend on social media this year, as the #dryjanuary movement begins to gain steam.A fairly recent trend (the term was only trademarked in 2014), the Dry January movement is the creation of The Alcohol Concern, a UK non-profit devoted to reducing societal problems connected to alcohol consumption.The program is simple: it asks participants to spend just one month abstaining from alcohol consumption. The month of January was chosen intentionally; a time of year when a huge swath of society is making New Year’s resolutions is a natural fit for the movement. The Alcohol Concern has commissioned an app which enables participants to track their progress, including the nutritional and financial benefits they’re receiving by giving up drinking for one month.The movement is rapidly gaining steam; in 2016, “thousands worldwide” participated — yet by January 2018, the number had exploded to 3.1 million participants. Although that’s a whopping 5% of Britain’s entire population, if the Dry January movement hopes to last, it will need to find a way to grow across cultural and national lines and break into the US mainstream.That growth may come as American stars begin to notice, participate in, and elevate the trend on their social media channels. In June of 2017, Rumer Willis posted a selfie to her Instagram account in which she celebrated six months of sobriety. She confirmed that it all started with Dry January 2017. According to Willis, she participated in the month-long focus on sobriety and “just decided to keep going.” A voice as powerful as hers could drive awareness to a cause that’s helping millions of people take control of their lives.