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

[psychospacecow]

http://www.alsa.org/about-als/what-is-als.html

ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

My family has MS in its veins. My mom suffers from MS, and I know exactly how these people feel. Its not a long road. Its a slippery descent into an inevitable handicapping. This is why people have been spreading the word with this ice bucket challenge.



Sorry if this is in the wrong section. I've just seen a lot of people associating the publicity for the charity with the action itself and not the reason behind it. I haven't seen that here but I figured it couldn't hurt.

[Koopaul]

I'm just sickened by the fact that people don't care enough about these issues to spread the word normally and donate money to a good cause. You have to do a stupid stunt in order to raise awareness and get attention. I bet most people who have done the challenge don't really care about the people suffering from this disease.

[alexmach1]

People are just having fun for a good cause, and its popularity is obviously making the cause viral. If they didn't care they wouldn't donate.

[Dazz]

I'm just sickened by the fact that people don't care enough about these issues to spread the word normally and donate money to a good cause. You have to do a stupid stunt in order to raise awareness and get attention. I bet most people who have done the challenge don't really care about the people suffering from this disease.

I learned something because it spread with people having a laugh and challenging each other to something everyone can do.

So what if those people don't care about those who suffer from this horrific disease - I found out about it because of those people still, and I certainly care. And I'm sure I'm not alone in learning about it this way. A LOT of other people probably have too.

Being sickened by people doing something that's raising attention, and an ungodly holy shitballs amount of money for charity, is stupid, and should be something that you should be sickened by... If you're pissed off that people are doing something for a laugh, hurting nobody, raising awareness, and thus raising a LOT of money, I think you need to reprioritize your emotions.

[Koopaul]

It's about the motivation. People are more motivated by something silly, than something tragic. Sure the results are great, but it says something about humanity that we have to trick people into doing something good instead of them wanting to do something good on their own.

That's what bothers me.

I was challenged by my friends to this. And instead of doing it, I just donated the extra amount. They were pissed. Called me party pooper. It showsme that they cared more about their friend getting wet than someone donating to a good cause.

So you see why I'm a little upset?

[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.

[Koopaul]

I'm not upset with the results, I'm upset by what needs to be done in order to get people to care.

See right now there are a million other causes that need our help, but they go unheard. That's terrible that people are suffering out there and no one notices.

Psychospacecow's poor mother has MS. Where's her ice bucket challenge?

I don't know. I guess I just have a glass-half-empty perspective on things.

[Petie]

See right now there are a million other causes that need our help, but they go unheard. That's terrible that people are suffering out there and no one notices.

You're right, and that's specifically why campaigns like this are a great thing. You're looking at this as if this ice bucket challenge is taking peoples' attentions away from other worthy causes but it's not that simple. In reality, ALS would just wind up another cause added to your list of things people don't notice. Like it or not, this kind of thing drives attention to a cause in need of help and should be encouraged specifically because it works.

It would be nice if everything that needed help got it but people first need to know it's there and most of us aren't going to go looking for it but are happy enough to throw a few dollars its way when it shows up at our doorsteps.

[Koopaul]

Yeah your right. I guess I get so depressed by all these people living around us going through hell, that I can't see the good that's being done.

Sorry about that.

[Ribby]

We need more spiritual fulfillment. At least that doesn't cost money or wasting on yalls. Watch out for the people that will freak you over!

[Ishimaru Chiaki]

Two people I know hâve died of this fisease. One of them was my 6th grade teacher and she was one of my favourite among all elementary teachers I had, she was like a grandmother for us, the students. The other one was one of the co-founders of pour region'visually impaired people association where I'm one of its administrators. At our 2002 annual Christmas party, hé was dancing with us, and one year after, hé was already gone. So I kinda know what ALS is.

Lately, I made a wink to this challenge by making a comic (hand-drawn this time, and colored with Gimp, and there's a référence to the Delfino Yoshies. You can ses it on my deviantart that I'm going to add to my profile just aftrr this post.