The nine reasons that participants of the 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge Participated in that groundswell
The nine reasons that participants of the 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge Participated in that groundswell
1. Keeping up friendships – The original participant was a friend of the baseball player that was diagnosed with ALS. He proceeded to share his challenge with friends who began participating because of their friendship with both the original participant and Pete.
2. Making new friends – As different friends of Pete, began participating in the ice bucket challenge, their friends jumped on the bandwagon. Because they were all working towards the same goal, friendships were created through the sharing of the videos. For example, I made friends through my son and daughter-in-law’s ice bucket video and continue to have these people as members of my Facebook family.
3. Succumbing to social pressure from existing friends – The ice bucket challenge was a dare that most people did not pass up. Seeing your friends participating and then being tagged, by these same friends was a challenge that led to many people who normally would not have been interested in learning about ALS participating in the challenge. Who wants to be the only person in a friendship circle who does not rise to the bet?
4. Paying it forward – I believe that this occurred when people began to like and share posts of their friends participating in the challenge. Even people who did not succumb to the peer pressure to actually do the challenge were willing to share the videos with their friends, giving others the opportunity to learn about the challenge and participate or share the information as they saw fit.
5. The altruistic impulse – The ice bucket challenge is a true picture of this impulse. Even people who had never heard of ALS found themselves researching the disease and participating in the challenge. This impulse allowed money to be raised to help people whom the participants may or may not even know. Being altruistic allows a sense of usefulness and benefits others. To me, reason 4 and 5 go hand in hand and perpetuate the cycle of groundswell participation.
6. The prurient impulse – This is evident in those who did the ice bucket challenge, outside, in the cold. My children are a prime example. I’m sure that some people watched them do it just to see how silly they looked, shivering in winter, in Iowa, pouring a bucket of ice water over their heads. I would have opted for doing it in a nice warm house, in the bathtub, but not my children. Behavior such as this elicits prurient impulses to watch the sometimes ridiculous and amusing behavior associated with many groundswell events.
7. The creative impulse – Taking a video of someone participating in the ice bucket challenge allowed people to tap into their creative side. While many of the videos were grainy, some out of focus, there was still that opportunity for others to see one’s work and comment with the thumbs up or the emoticon laugh. This allows people to experience relevance for their creative endeavors.
8. The validation impulse – This was definitely at play during the ice bucket challenge. People learned about ALS, in droves and participating in this challenge validated their altruistic and creative reflexes. People who participated had video proof that they are willing to stand for something outside of themselves and had many people not only giving their efforts the thumbs up, but sharing their efforts across friend connections that spanned the world wide web.
9. The affinity impulse – All of the other impulses come together to represent an affinity for the cause of research funding for a cure for ALS. Everyone who participated in the ice bucket challenge, their friends and followers came together to support fund raising, because of one young man, a baseball player with ALS.
