The Ice Bucket Challenge.
People, without even knowing about what this challenge is all about, keep sending funny messages and post status updates about it on social networking sites.
First of all, What is the Ice Bucket Challenge all about?
The Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes also called ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was started to raise funds and also spread awareness about the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis disease. It involves people pouring a bucket of ice water on them or getting it poured and record a video of the same. The participant can then can challenge 3 people to perform the challenge. The person should mention names of those 3 people in his recorded video.
Then, the people who are challenged have two options with them and they have only 24 hours to choose. Either perform the challenge and donate 10$ towards the cause or deny the challenge and donate 100$ towards the same cause.
Briefly speaking about "Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis", it is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects cells in the brain and the spinal cord. People suffering with this disease loses muscle movement and it eventually leads to total paralysis and death in the next 5 years. There is no cure to this disease. The U.S government has approved only one drug which modestly extends survival.
The Challenge has gone viral on the social sites. According to the New York Times, people shared around 1.2 million videos on facebook between June 1 and August 13. It was mentioned more than 2.2 million times on twitter. Mashable, the famous British-American News site named the phenomenon as,"The Harlem Shake of The Summer".
The "Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis" is also called " Lou Gehrig's Disease" named after the baseball player "Lou Gehrig" who revealed about his diagnosis in 1939. Before the trend got viral, only half of America's population were aware of the disease. But, during the challenge, this disease got 8000+ wiki hits per day on a average and a maximum of 430000 views on a single day (Aug 31).
This challenge got viral after many celebrities accepted and performed this challenge. Some of them are,
People, without even knowing about what this challenge is all about, keep sending funny messages and post status updates about it on social networking sites.
First of all, What is the Ice Bucket Challenge all about?
The Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes also called ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was started to raise funds and also spread awareness about the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis disease. It involves people pouring a bucket of ice water on them or getting it poured and record a video of the same. The participant can then can challenge 3 people to perform the challenge. The person should mention names of those 3 people in his recorded video.
Then, the people who are challenged have two options with them and they have only 24 hours to choose. Either perform the challenge and donate 10$ towards the cause or deny the challenge and donate 100$ towards the same cause.
Briefly speaking about "Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis", it is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects cells in the brain and the spinal cord. People suffering with this disease loses muscle movement and it eventually leads to total paralysis and death in the next 5 years. There is no cure to this disease. The U.S government has approved only one drug which modestly extends survival.
The Challenge has gone viral on the social sites. According to the New York Times, people shared around 1.2 million videos on facebook between June 1 and August 13. It was mentioned more than 2.2 million times on twitter. Mashable, the famous British-American News site named the phenomenon as,"The Harlem Shake of The Summer".
The "Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis" is also called " Lou Gehrig's Disease" named after the baseball player "Lou Gehrig" who revealed about his diagnosis in 1939. Before the trend got viral, only half of America's population were aware of the disease. But, during the challenge, this disease got 8000+ wiki hits per day on a average and a maximum of 430000 views on a single day (Aug 31).
This challenge got viral after many celebrities accepted and performed this challenge. Some of them are,
- Bill Gates
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Jennifer Lopez
- Justin Timberlake
- Steven spielberg
- Robert Downey Jr.
- The Rock
- Tim Cook
- Selena Gomez
- Justin Bieber
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- Lady Gaga
- Britney Spears
The ALS association reported that over 3 million donors have donated more than 100 million dollars. The association raised only 2.8 Million dollars during the same period last year.
This fundraising challenge has also faced many criticisms. Some critics say that this challenge primarily focuses on fun rather than fund. The Evening Standard Magazine said that, "It is less about raising funds and more about showing off your star-pulling power." Pamela Anderson refused to take this challenge due to use of Animal-Experimentation in ALS Research.Some doctors also suggests that performing the ice-bucket challenge may have adverse affects on health and can lead to unconsciousness.
