So this month's no make up / bring home our girls / pointless LOOK AT ME thing is

J

jbj

Poor old Geordie's array...
The ice challenge whereby instead of actually being altruistic and just donating money to charity you:

- Waste a couple of gallons of water (ironic given how many people die from lack of clean drinking water each day) by throwing it over yourself
- Donate a £3 to a charity (for the record if you don't do the challenge, the penalty is a £10 donation :facepalm:
- Post it on facebook and nominate some other fuckwits to follow suit

FUCK THE FUCK OFF!!!

I make no bones about how vapid I find the majority of social media but going to this much effort to show other facebook arseholes that you donated a couple of quid to charity?

It's even more stupid than those #bringhomeourgirls (yeah how'd that grass roots campaign workout for the Boko Haram kidnap victims?) and the no make up selfie thing: GET A FUCKING LIFE AND IF YOU REALLY, TRULY WANT TO MAKE EVEN THE SLIGHTEST BIT OF CHANGE TO THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER - DON'T PLASTER SHIT ALL OVER FACEBOOK AS IF YOU'RE GHANDI JUST GET OUT THERE AND DO IT.
 
On the plus side, the ALS foundation has raised about $15 million as a result, compared to a paltry $50,000 for the same period last year. Is it taking advantage of vanity on social media? Probably, but it is hard to argue with the results.
 
Since it's not feasible for most people to send a couple of gallons of water through the mail to Africa, I don't understand people getting up in arms about your first point. Stupid? Yeah, OK. But one really has nothing to do with the other.

It's all about awareness, and I don't understand all the rage I've seen regarding the campaign. But maybe that's just me. :shrug:
 
The thing has been bastardised (at least over here) to the point where it's not even the ALS thing that people are donating to: Awareness of cancer charities? How much more aware do people need to be these days?

The wasting of water might have no tangible link to raising money for a cancer charity but tell that to some poor African woman that has to give her kid filthy water to drink day in day out knowing fine well that it could kill them - people are so intent on showing how good and righteous they are about one cause whilst essentially spitting in the face of another...

And I'm all for the charity raising money, I just find it incredibly sad that these people wouldn't have the desire or gumption to donate or do anything to raise awareness if they couldn't plaster it on their timeline. ymmv.
 
jbj said:
And I'm all for the charity raising money, I just find it incredibly sad that these people wouldn't have the desire or gumption to donate or do anything to raise awareness if they couldn't plaster it on their timeline. ymmv.
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It is incredibly sad. It's also the hallmark of the modern slacktivist who believes the world is waiting with bated breath to follow his or her every move.
 
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I have a couple of friends who post literally dozens of things on facebook every day related to what they're doing, where they are, what food is on their plates, etc. I find it hard to understand the genesis of this sort of exhibitionism...
 
I'm conflicted. On the one hand, I am really annoyed by hashtag activism, where people feel good for basically doing nothing. Look at how socially responsible I am! What? No, I don't actually volunteer or donate money or anything. I "raise awareness".

On the other hand, the numbers don't lie - a huge influx of donations to the ALS society can't really be argued with.

So I guess in the balance it's a good thing, even if 95% of the videos have a "look at me" attention whore vibe to them.
 
I love the results. The method can be a bit "look what I did" for the social media dependent types.

I don't get why people need to share their donations on the interwebz in search of validation and bragging rights. Maybe to inspire others to do something similar? That's different.
 
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While I feel the whole ice bucket challenge thing is stupid, it is providing good results. Sadly, people need things like this to spur their generosity. Back in the 70's or 80's, the only way to have someone give money to a good cause was for someone else to take a five mile walk. One of those quirks of human nature, I guess.
 
jbj said:
GET A FUCKING LIFE AND IF YOU REALLY, TRULY WANT TO MAKE EVEN THE SLIGHTEST BIT OF CHANGE TO THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER - DON'T PLASTER SHIT ALL OVER FACEBOOK AS IF YOU'RE GHANDI JUST GET OUT THERE AND DO IT.
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What specifically should they "get out there and do"? Can you provide concrete, clear steps for how a 17 year old can solve the clean water crisis in Africa, stop Boko Haram and/or help develop a cure ALS?
 
jbj said:
The thing has been bastardised (at least over here) to the point where it's not even the ALS thing that people are donating to: Awareness of cancer charities? How much more aware do people need to be these days?
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Well, ALS is not cancer...so maybe a little awareness isn't such a bad thing. And to the water point, I don't think a few buckets dumped over folks heads is really going to make that big of a difference.

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Social media can get annoying but as mentioned already, this one has worked. It has raised several million dollars and hopefully awareness for a disease that has no cure or effective treatement whatsoever. Between my wife and I we know 3 different people who have died from ALS and it is a horrible disease. You get diagnosed and you slowly die. You and your family get to think about it every single day. I've lost both parents to cancer and the main differences are there are effective treatment for some types of cancer and there is always hope you will survive. There are also billions more dollars being spent on individual types of cancer than ALS.

I can certainly understand the frustration with ass hats who dont get it and stray from the intended track but I always expect that with social media. But that is how social media works. You use people's desire to be exhibitionists to help a worthy cause sometimes.

I and I am officially in support of Chad's proposal.
 
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