HOFBERG: Challenges of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

I used to think pictures of my friends’ newborns and the never-ending posts about the trials and tribulations of my old-college-friends-turned-new-parents were the most irritating things to happen to social media, besides, of course, my parents. Then, the ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) Ice Bucket Challenge began. After weeks of watching videos of my friends soaking themselves with buckets of water, please, dear God, tell me it’s over.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past six months, you probably already know the premise of the challenge. If a friend nominates you, you have 24 hours to either douse yourself with a bucket full of freezing-cold ice water, film it and pass the challenge on to others via social media or donate $100 to the ALS Association.

The challenge is aimed at not only raising money for the ALS Association, but also for raising awareness. However, as far as educating people with any substantive information, how donations will be used or why the money is needed for the ALS Association, the Ice Bucket Challenge videos that clog my News Feed seem to be anything but informative. Instead, for weeks on end, my Facebook has been a montage of self-congratulatory videos that are more effective in raising awareness of my friends’ own attractiveness in teeny bikinis or see-through wet T-shirts.

Which brings me to why ALS? It’s not to say that those approximately 5,600 people who are diagnosed with the paralyzing disease annually don’t deserve donations for research for a cure, but what about funding research for other diseases that affect much larger numbers of people across the country every year? In 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 596,577 people died from heart disease, 576,691 people died from cancer and 84,974 people died from Alzheimer’s disease. It seems to me that other organizations, for example, the American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society or the Alzheimer’s Association, whose research focuses on curing diseases whose combined fatalities dwarf the numbers of those affected by ALS, are equally, if not more deserving, of at least a portion of the $41.8 million in contributions that the ALS Association has received this year alone.

Let’s get one thing straight. It’s not that I’m against raising awareness or money for ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, the progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord of approximately 30,000 people in the United States. I do, however, have several problems with the trendy, social media phenomenon of which actually donating money to charity appears to be secondary in the minds of most of my friends who are seemingly more focused on the fun of pouring a bucket of freezing water on their heads.

I have to wonder how many of my friends are participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge because they personally know someone that is affected by ALS and how many of them are participating just because they want to up the number of likes on their social media pages. As well-intentioned as the viral video challenge is, here’s what participating in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge actually says: “I don’t actually care enough about finding a cure for ALS to make a monetary donation, so I’ll just substitute this trivial activity for more genuine involvement in charitable activities.”

But perhaps what’s even more troubling to me than my friends using the challenge to boost their popularity on the Internet is their blatant disregard for how environmentally irresponsible it is to waste such a precious natural resource as water. Shame on all my friends, particularly in California, who chose to spend money on bagged ice instead of just donating that money to charity, especially in the wake of the state’s exceptional drought conditions. Despite the fact that nearly 84 percent of the state suffers from extreme drought, the National Report recently reported that nearly 33 million gallons of water are wasted on the Ice Bucket Challenge daily in California alone.

Congratulations Ice Bucketers! Not only has your staged drenching contributed to your viral popularity, but it’s also lent a hand in making a mockery of the severe water shortages that plague not only California, but much of the globe and contribute to serious human suffering.

It’s time to wise up, you guys. I need you to start using your social media accounts a little bit more responsibly, not only for the sake of saving me from having to watch one more painfully unoriginal wet T-shirt contest in disguise, but also to save our planet and our terminally ill friends. I know it’s a lot to ask to make a small donation to a worthy cause without the promise of receiving likes on Facebook in return, but somehow, I think you’ll survive.