An Icy Challenge

Cap took the challenge to a bit of an extreme.

Last week, I was challenged by my dear friend Shawn to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, the craze that has been sweeping the Intra-Webs for a solid six weeks. For any of my readers not living on planet Earth, the Ice Bucket Challenge is where you video record yourself dumping a bucket of ice and water over your own head. You then nominate friends and family to do the same. They have 24 hours, or they have to donate to the ALS Foundation, (For anyone curious enough to ask, I donated,) which in my opinion is the curious part of this whole damned thing. I don't quite understand why anyone would dump freezing water over their heads to get out of donating to a worthy cause.

Now I don't want to come off as a "hater," (That's a technical term here.) I can't discount the good that the Ice Bucket Challenge has done to raise awareness of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or all the money it has raised. In fact between July 19th and August 18th, the foundation has reported receiving $15.6 million. That's no small sum of money for an organization that usually only nets a few million in a year. Yet throughout this whole thing  have found myself feeling conflicted.

For as much good as this Internet craze has accomplished, I find myself questioning a society where it seems that the only time we can accomplish anything worthwhile is through the use of an elaborate selfie. Why is it that we need to advertise our good deeds on Facebook, Twitter, (or on a blog.) The Internet and social media is a powerful tool, but it isn't the only tool we have at our disposals, nor does it give us license to celebrate our good deeds for the world to see. If the only reason you accomplish something good is so that it can be "retweeted" or "shared" than it's probably time to wonder if you are performing a good deed at all, or are you just looking for digital accolades.

Perhaps that sounds harsh, and I can see why it might, but I have always believed that the greatest deeds were the ones performed in the dark. You do something because it is the right thing to do, not because you are looking for recognition or a reward. Yet, in today's social media culture such quiet moments of solitary heroics are becoming rarer and rarer. When everything from your lunch to your workout schedule is being posted, perhaps it is unreasonable for me to assume that people would not post updates about how they helped that old woman across the street or gave a sandwich to that homeless man on the corner. Then we can all give it a thumbs up, and tell that person "Ur G8T," or "Way 2 Go," or "Ur the the most selfless person I know."

Accept the praise and the cheers when you deserve it, when you have accomplished something truly remarkable, but not for the good deeds you do. Those, by definition, should be unremarkable. We should all want to live in a world where donating money, helping a worthy cause, volunteering, etc, goes wholly unnoticed, because of how commonplace they are. The Ice Bucket Challenge is not as bad as all that. It is fun, and it lets the more creative among us really show off our flare and individuality. Maybe the ends do justify the means on this one, but, in my opinion, in a world where so much of what we do is constantly being recorded, labeled, tagged, and uploaded, it makes those quiet moments of small heroics all the more important.

It's chilly when you step down off that soap box.