"Slacktivism is a relatively new term with only negative connotations being associated with it as of recently. The whole thinking is that instead of actually donating money, you're attributing your time and a social post in place of that donation. Basically, instead of donating $10 to Charity XYZ, slacktivism would have you create a Facebook Post about how much you care about Charity XYZ- generating immediate and heightened awareness but lacking any actual donations and long term impact."-Ben Kosinski for HuffPost (see full article here).
We have all seen it, all across social media, friends and family dumping icy cold buckets of water on their heads in the name of spreading awareness for ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease, which is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that atrophies nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. This leads to muscle weakness, loss of usage of arms and legs, and a tremendous difficulty speaking, breathing and swallowing. If you don't dump water on your head within 24 hours, you must donate $100 to the cause. So of course, people are filling up their buckets, and nominating more friends and family.
Is this working out for the cause? My husband, while watching someone dump water on their heads, said, "I don't get it. How is this helping?" Well, let's be honest. No one has been talking about ALS this much probably since June 19, 1939, the day Gehrig was diagnosed. Talking is good, in my opinion, because while there are a lot of passionate slacktivists out there who just flat out can't afford to spend a ton of money due to other life situations, there are also the wealthy activists who can and will throw a buck or two at a cause...if they've heard of it!
The ice bucket challenge was started by Beverly, Mass. resident, Pete Frates. Frates, 29 years old, has lived with ALS since 2012. He can no longer speak, but cleverly nominated himself to his own challenge while playing the classic Vanilla Ice jam "Ice, Ice Baby." Barbara Newhouse, President and CEO of The ALS Association, states "This is a creative way to spread ALS awareness via social media and in communities nationwide." Furthermore, according to Alexa Keyes' article on NBC.com, ALS Association spokeswoman, Carrie Munk says that the organization has collected $1.35 million between July 29-August 11th of this summer, not counting other sources of donations, such as chapter offices around the country. According to Munk, during the summer of 2013, donations totaled $22, 000. While this proves that the challenge is helping bringing in monetary donations, Munk goes on to mention the importance of raising awareness. "The monetary contributions are amazing, but there is so much value to the visibility that this is generating. It's unquantifiable."
Indeed, especially considering who some of the videos star...Martha Stewart, Matt Lauer, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Ethel Kennedy (who nominated Barack Obama!), as well as a ton of UMASS doctors, and the city of Boston. Slacktivism on steroids, maybe?
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When I was nominated for the ice bucket challenge, I was ready. I may be a slacktivist (give me a break, I have too many charities I raise money for- ADHD, Autism, and The Sky's the Limit- and have a family I have to care for; trust me I'd love to be a philanthropist and raise money all day long, but alas) but I had an idea...Sure I'll dump some icy water on my head. But only if my friends and family "sponsored" me by donating a total of $100. And it worked! $100 donated to ALS (you can do so here), as well as me looking silly and foolish as my 10 year old dumped 2 buckets of ice water on my head, while my Frozen shirt wearing 3 year old ran around making funny faces. It also forced me to learn a little about the disease out of curiosity (and to not look too foolish by accepting the challenge). So all in all I'd say that #theicebucketchallenge has done more good than negative for ALS.
