Ice Bucket Challenge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Bucket_Challenge
I'm extremely suspicious of chain letters, even in good causes, because they're so open to abuse -- if I decide the morality of an action by "someone on the internet said so" rather than by my own judgement, I could end up doing anything. And I'm nervous of putting social pressure on people to do things, because that's often good, but is really awful if you accidentally target a friend who, eg, is already giving a lot to charity and can't easily afford to give more, or eg. might have some physical problem completing it safely. And many people DO end up tricked into lots of things by pyramid schemes, cults, etc.
But I'm totally in awe of the ice bucket challenge's success as a marketing message. It works so well: it deliberately tells you to spread to multiple other people so it spreads exponentially; it's for a good cause, so people are embarrassed to say no; and it requires doing something highly visible and a little bit embarrassing, drawing attention and creating a bonding experience.
However, I note that although memes control humans, humans also control memes. The raising-awareness is not inextricably linked to the original charity.
You're entitled to refuse it if you disagree. But you're also completely at liberty to say "I do the ice bucket challenge, but although I think motor neurone disease is a very worthy cause, I personally prefer to make a monthly donation to charity X which has a high impact factor/I am personally involved with/I don't want to discuss how I chose it" if you want to. You don't have to stick to the precise terms of a challenge you never agreed to. And the meme may mutate into a variant form...
You can also comment at http://jack.dreamwidth.org/907363.html using OpenID.
comments so far.
I'm extremely suspicious of chain letters, even in good causes, because they're so open to abuse -- if I decide the morality of an action by "someone on the internet said so" rather than by my own judgement, I could end up doing anything. And I'm nervous of putting social pressure on people to do things, because that's often good, but is really awful if you accidentally target a friend who, eg, is already giving a lot to charity and can't easily afford to give more, or eg. might have some physical problem completing it safely. And many people DO end up tricked into lots of things by pyramid schemes, cults, etc.
But I'm totally in awe of the ice bucket challenge's success as a marketing message. It works so well: it deliberately tells you to spread to multiple other people so it spreads exponentially; it's for a good cause, so people are embarrassed to say no; and it requires doing something highly visible and a little bit embarrassing, drawing attention and creating a bonding experience.
However, I note that although memes control humans, humans also control memes. The raising-awareness is not inextricably linked to the original charity.
You're entitled to refuse it if you disagree. But you're also completely at liberty to say "I do the ice bucket challenge, but although I think motor neurone disease is a very worthy cause, I personally prefer to make a monthly donation to charity X which has a high impact factor/I am personally involved with/I don't want to discuss how I chose it" if you want to. You don't have to stick to the precise terms of a challenge you never agreed to. And the meme may mutate into a variant form...
You can also comment at http://jack.dreamwidth.org/907363.html using OpenID.
comments so far.