Fitting altruism and stupid fun in an ice bucket
C elebrities, athletes, and (2s dousing them selves with ice water to raise awareness and research funding for A Amyotrophic ateral clerosis, also known as ou *ehrig s disease may sound weird and incongruous, but that s e actly what s been happening on social media for over a week now. :hat began as a challenge between two A patients has now become a viral sensation akin to the planking and arlem hake crazes of ,nternet yore, e cept this one has people like ill *ates and 1 A ommissioner Adam ilver as participants and millions of dollars already raised for charity.
The awareness part, though, is a bit sketchy. :hat is now known as the A ,ce ucket hallenge actu ally started as just an ,ce ucket hallenge, which had become a minor ,nternet trend as early as -uly, as popularized by KH G K s 0att auer who ac
The more the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge spreads, the more it upstages its adopted cause of raising awareness for a serious disease
cepted a challenge made by golf legend *reg 1orman. An A patient named Pat uinn got wind of the gim mick and challenged his friend and fellow A patient Pete )rates, with the intention of using the trend to raise A awareness. ,t worked it Tuickly spread in )rates hometown of oston and now, countless of ines and ,nstagram videos later, it s all over the ,nternet, with A permanently attached to it.
The idea, or at least the original one, was to challenge people to either pour ice water on themselves or, if they weren t up to it, donate money to A research. The original idea, in essence, was that if you accepted the challenge, you were a world class a hole. ut it seems people are implicitly doing both embracing the charity aspect, while retaining all the fun of watching a bunch of famous people challenge themselves and freeze their butts off in viral videos. The more the A ,ce ucket hallenge spreads, however, the more it upstages its adopted cause.
:hen -immy )allon did the gimmick on his late night show this week, he took more time talking about the challenge itself than e plaining what A is. e s actually one of the best cases majority of the viral videos don t even make mention of the disease. ut hey, people have been doing stupid things on social media for years now, so we might as well try and cure a mysterious neurodegenerative disease that has afflicted 12, Americans while we re at it.
The viral challenge has predictably reached our shores, which makes you wonder why Pinoys suddenly care about 12, ailing Americans. To be fair, it doesn t seem like they do. , m not sure if the Pinoy athletes and celebri ties that have joined the A ,ce ucket hallenge have given money to the A Association. :hat s very clear, however, is that they really enjoy being part of this cool ,ce ucket thing on the ,nternet. 0aybe we should agree to adopt a cause that resonates locally. 0 T improvements Tacloban rebuild ed ross donations 2r maybe we should just do what we re supposed to do all along make our donations Tuietly and make our viral videos as stupid and as fun as possible.