As I'm sure you are all aware there is a trend on Facebook and other social media networks called “The Ice Challenge” which is a direct spin off of the now dead trend of “No Make-Up Selfies” and to a lesser extent the “neknomintion” crap. At first these trends started off with the best intentions that I'm 70% sure of, with good people with kind souls doing something out of their comfort zones in order to raise money for charity. Then further down the track ego and Facebook users famous insecurities came into play. This lead to dramatic increase of casual fund raisers uploading their edgy photos or uncomfortable videos which in their hopes would spread throughout their friends news feeds like a virus for want of a better word. The rules were stated that if nominated you had 24 hours to complete the challenge AND donate $100 to a cancer charity of your choosing. This lasted about a week. Then as with all of Facebook’s cliche trends the realisation of the immense attention and “love” you would then get from your peers made the main aspect of the challenge which was raising money for cancer slowly disintegrated into dust. The rules then magically changed to were if you were nominated you could choose whether to do the challenge OR donate $100 to charity. This lasted yet another week. The influx of videos uploaded within the next fortnight meant that the value of “likes” for each video and the “respect” and admiration from the social media public was of more value than the actual cause. It has now gotten to the point were I’d even say that out of all the recent uploads, less than 10% actually forked out the $100 donation. Its a sickening thought that we can be corrupted into using one of the most devastating diseases ever known to man as a form of self vanity, so when your having a nice warm shower after your amazing feat of strength from withstanding ice water being tipped on your head, think of the 4 year old girl with leukemia coughing up blood before her next dose of chemotherapy.

Donate here: http://www.cancernz.org.nz/help-us/

-Anxiety