I was at lunch earlier when I overheard a colleague on another table reading out loud a few lines from Wikipedia:
<i>"Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—also referred to as motor neurone disease (MND), Charcot disease, and, in the United States, Lou Gehrig's disease—is a neurodegenerative disease with various causes. It is characterised by muscle spasticity, rapidly progressive weakness due to muscle atrophy, and difficulty in speaking (dysarthria), swallowing (dysphagia), and breathing (dyspnea). ALS is the most common of the five motor neuron diseases."</i>
See, this colleague is from accounting and we work in a very technical job. Hearing medical jargon on casual lunchtime conversation is unusual. These days, I really shouldn't be surprised since everyone is talking about this latest Social Media bandwagon: the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
The first time I watched a video was of Mike Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook (yeah, I follow him in FB). He completed the challenge and passed the ball, among others, to Bill Gates. I still wasn't curious enough until I saw Ashton Kutcher, my ultimate crush, pour a bucket of ice on himself while looking so hot.
I rarely follow trends in social media. I may look into it and if I don't feel like it works for me, then I'm not compelled to do so. The most recent ones I skipped: #100happyday, #makeuptransformation, and #flashbackfriday (I feel that #tbt is enough).
Now with the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, it's wonderful to see how the power of social media is put into good use. Not only is the research being funded by generous donations, it's driving awareness to the disease too. Case in point, that colleague who researched and shared with friends what ALS is. We wouldn't ever have heard of ALS until it started trending.
Having celebrities and well known personalities involved made this campaign successful. With thousands of videos uploaded, there are different versions of the challenge now. Most would complete the challenge then tag someone else. Some skip the cold and would donate instead (like Charlie Sheen and Barrack Obama). Others do both. I'm guessing most are posting their own videos to imitate idols and get trending. I feel like those who just dump the bucket are being lazy and simply using the buzz to get their 15 seconds of fame. That's just my opinion. Yet I guess there's power in numbers. Each one who joined the challenge had actually put this in trending and helped spread the awareness, which is one of it's goals.
For me, I'd do neither. Not because I don't believe the cause. I just don't want making a video if myself.
With that said, here's the screen caps of my favorite challengers: