Mattucation 101:The Ice Bucket Challenge

An example of a time social media was used to help a problem is the Ice Bucket Challenge. The Ice Bucket Challenge started in 2014, it involved dumping a bucket of ice water on someone's head to raise awareness of the disease ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) and research donations. It went viral on Facebook during July 2014. In the US, many people participated in the challenge.
The challenge encouraged people to film themselves having a bucket of ice water dumped on their heads and then nominating others to do the same. The Ice Bucket Challenge was re-introduced in August 2015 with the intention of making it an annual thing.
An early version of the challenge took place in Salem, Indiana as early as May 15, 2014 which involved pouring cold water on peple's heads and then donating to a charity for a local child diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.
The challenge first received media attention in America on June 30, 2014 when people from the Golf Channel program Morning Drive televised the social-media phenomenon, and performed a live on-air Ice Bucket Channel. Plenty of celebrities, politicians, and fictional characters did the challenge including Barack Obama, Justin Bieber, Donald Trump, Weird Al, Kermit the Frog, Homer Simpson, The Annoying Orange, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. The challenge has been a very succesful campaign and it's combination of competitiveness and social media pressure has led to over 2.4 million videos on Facebook. The challenge inspired large of numbers of people, videos, and donations.
Using social media as it's platform, it has allowed access to many people worldwide. Chris Kennedy, a golfer in Sarasota Florida was the first to participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge. At the time, the challenge was not tied to any specific charity and participants would select a charity of their choice to donate. The first charity was one that Chris Kennedy's friend had selected because a young child had cancer in the area. Kennedy passed the challenge along to other people and he decided to choose ALS because his relative is suffering from that disease. The first person he nominated was his wife's cousin Jeanette Senerechia, because her husband was the one suffering from the disease. He posted the video on July 15th and ever since then ALS and the Ice Bucket Challenge were linked. The trend began to spread like wildfire in Kennedy's neighborhood and then became a viral video weeks later.
I personally never did the challenge, but I'm happy that something went viral other than cat videos, silly cartoons, and people getting hurt. I think it's refreshing to see a viral video that is for a good cause and not just for humor. I'm glad that they were able to donate money to research such a serious disease and if somebody nominated me, I would certainly do the challenge.