In case you were wondering what this ice bucket challenge thing was about

[Petie]

So you see why I'm a little upset?

I'm sorry but I really don't. In some cases, the motivation really might be to just make your friend dump cold water over their head and in others, people are doing it to help out the cause in question. The end result is the same though - this charity has orders of magnitude more money this year than last as a result of what you're calling "silly."

It is silly but that's why it works. Yes, ALS is tragic and your donation, ice bucket or otherwise, is a great thing but tragedy doesn't spread nearly as quickly as something fun does. That's where this type of campaign really succeeds - it has appeal to the masses as an easy and fun way that they can do a good thing. There's no trick involved here, only viral dissemination of information that might go otherwise unnoticed by 95% of the people currently participating.