I poured a bucket of ice-cold/ice cube-filled water over my head and posted the video to Facebook.
So did more than a million other people.
No, this wasn't for #dumbestthingspeopledo -- although some might debate that. More on that in a minute.
I did it because the idea was to raise awareness -- and hence money (DUH!) -- for research for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord -- a devastating disease that is horrible to contemplate.
ALS is also known in the United States as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Back to my shivering body: Someone came up with the idea and the challenge -- the drive being to get people to dump the bucket, post the video and challenge their friends to do the same. And if they didn't have the gumption to do so, to donate instead... and therein lies the problem.
The campaign has already raised a respectable amount of money -- $15.6 million in donations, compared to $1.8 million during the same time period last year -- but a backlash has developed online and in the media as many posters lose sight of the cause, neglecting to mention ALS (including some big celebrities). Not all who post seem to get that the idea is for all to donate money -- not just their cold and wet bodies.
If there was ever an example of CLICK AND SHOUT, this is it -- big time!
Folks, it just isn't enough to click, post, share, like, thumbs up, emoticon or use any of the other digital substitutes we have for actually taking action, getting physically involved or emotionally worked up -- NOT AT ALL!
The need is to raise awareness and to raise money. If you chill yourself and neglect to get hot on ALS and the research needed, you have done nothing -- nada -- and if you do manage the mention and don't donate something, you have bought your 15 minutes of fleeting fame and done not much more.
Bottom line: No doubt everyone who has participated meant well, but that's not good enough. Not in today's world. So CLICK AND SHOUT... post and give... post and get your friends to post and give. Yell out about ALS (or any cause you care about), but follow up with the action required to change the world -- otherwise all we change is the storage settings on some server.
Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often. Mark Twain
Nor nearly as often as a click....
CLICK AND SHOUT - and make sure you have a towel handy....
What do you think?