It's hard to believe, but there was a time when people willingly dumped buckets of ice on their heads. Imagine telling that one to your grandkids years from now!
You know what I'm talking about — the ALS ice bucket challenge. The year was 2014. Everyone and their mother did it. Your favorite celebrity probably inspired you to take part. We all had our fair share of favorite ice bucket challenge videos, because we spent an embarrassingly large amount of time watching them on YouTube. Naysayers even coined a term for the viral trend known as "slacktivism," which is a fancy way to say we're all lazy. Those 17 million+ videos surely could not amount to anything. Right?
Wrong.
Fast forward two years and the ice bucket challenge turned into so much more, raking in a stunning $115 million towards ALS research and as of last week, a gene discovery! News outlets reported that University of Massachusetts' Project MinE discovered a gene that is responsible for the retrogressive disease. The gene Project MinE discovered is called NEK1 and has now been deemed as one of the most common genes that contribute to ALS. With this discovery, the work towards creating a definitive cure for ALS is now more tangible.
HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!
Yes, Bill Nye, science does rule and we all kind of helped contribute to this discovery. Without our social media silliness and donations, this would have never happened or at least not for a very long time.
The success of the ice bucket challenge is one that can only come from true virality. However, no one can predict what will go viral (trust me, I had to read a whole textbook on it last semester.) It's interesting to see just how big something can become. If pouring copious amounts of ice water on your head can break ground on the impossible, anything can. Just think of the things we could conquer or discover, if we directed our time and energy to something important.
We have to start using our social media presence, opinions and influence in a positive way. Because of technology's very nature, it is so easy for all of us to hide behind a screen, post before thinking and litter the web with senseless arguments and sometimes even anger. Let's change that! Let's go back to our 2014 ways and do something that made us feel good and brought attention to an important cause.
Luckily for us, doing this won't be so hard. The ALS Association is back at it again, two years later, with their Every Drop Counts campaign. This time, it's more about educating the world about ALS and less about become the next Most Watched video on YouTube. Instead of grabbing a camera and filming a video, all we need to do is use our social media platforms to share the campaign's video and spark further awareness of ALS. And we all should do it because using our voices for good is cool.
