ALS Ice Bucket Challenge make a splash in medical advancements eight years later

The 2014 ALS Ice Bucket Challenge raised over $115 million, helping to fund a new drug for those affected by the neurological disease. UNSPLASH

For senior screenwriting major Tosca Johnson, having a bucket of ice water poured on her head after a long day of middle school classes didn’t seem the least bit appealing. Luckily, her cheerleading teammates were more than willing to be drenched before practice, so Johnson had the pleasure of being the designated bucket dumper instead. 

“I did competitive cheerleading in middle school,” Johnson said. “So my team and I got together after practice one day, and my coach filmed us as we did the Ice Bucket Challenge. Luckily, I was not one of the people that got water poured on them. I got to dump a bucket of freezing cold water on one of my teammates, which was quite fun.”

In 2014, the viral Ice Bucket Challenge spread like wildfire across social media as everyone, including celebrities such as Mark Zuckerberg and Tom Hiddleston, poured a bucket of ice cold water on themselves to raise awareness about Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as ALS.

The challenge not only provided the pleasure of watching your friends get soaked, but it raised over $115 million, some of which went towards funding a new drug recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration. A study shows that this new drug, Relyvrio, can extend the life of someone with ALS by 6 months or more. 

Marlowe Harris-Wilson, a junior screenwriting major, recalls his own experience with the challenge and how he ended up getting his whole family involved.

“My friends were doing it, and one of them tagged me to do it so I got the (water ready) and then my dad was like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’" Harris-Wilson said. “I had to explain what the ALS Ice Bucket challenge was, and he asked why I don’t just donate. I said, ‘Well, the fun of it is you get to do something that involves you in this sort of act of pain. But also it spreads the message a little bit more on social media.’ So then I got my whole family to start doing it.”

Like many individuals at the time, junior health sciences major Rachel Berns had a small amount of knowledge on what ALS was before the challenge began to take over her social media feed. But once she was nominated to participate in the water dumping, Berns said she did so without hesitation. 

After learning about how the trend raised funding, Berns was impressed by the effect it would have on the ALS community.

“I think it's great that not only did some portion of the population learn a little bit more about what ALS is or who might be affected, but it also was able to do something that had a very direct and distinct impact,” Berns said. “(It helped to) fund more research or to provide people who are living with ALS, whether that be with assistive technology or additional finances for medication. I’m glad it had such fruitful monetary results.” 

Harris-Wilson told The Panther that although he had participated in the challenge when he was younger, he had no idea how much of an impact the trend ended up having on ALS research and that he is amazed by the effect of social media. 

“I think one of the benefits of having these social media trends where they're involved in raising awareness or money for things is that it makes it more accessible for people (to see),” Harris-Wilson said. “It makes sense but it's also very impressive (that they raised millions of dollars) because it reached that many people and I think people wouldn't have done it if it weren't for the fact that they could do a silly challenge and say why they were doing it.”

Although the intentions behind this trend were positive and resulted in life-changing initiatives, there have also been a number of challenges on the internet with no philanthropic intentions and actually caused more harm than good such as eating tide pods, stuffing your mouth with too many marshmallows, the Kylie Jenner lip challenge or consuming a spoonful of cinnamon. 

“It’s not as though people were trying to eat a spoonful of cinnamon to raise awareness for cervical cancer,” Berns said. “It was just to do that because people think it's funny. And even that gets so much traction (on the internet), and is that really where we should be investing our efforts and our attention?”

Harris-Wilson said that in order for a trend to go viral, the most important qualities are that it must be entertaining and accessible. For example, The Knife Game challenge, where an individual tries to not stab their fingers with a knife as they sing a song, is easy to participate in because all one needs is a knife. For the Ice Bucket challenge, all participants needed was a bucket of freezing water.

“There are (challenges) that are blatantly made just to get attention on social media for people doing stupid or reckless things, which is entertaining, but I guess that's the other side of it,” Harris-Wilson said. “It's either for a good cause or to hurt yourself on social media for attention.”

Johnson, who said she can be apprehensive about things she sees on the internet, is thankful for how, on occasion, people can come together and help benefit a cause.

“Even though the internet can be a place that spreads misinformation and sometimes causes harm to people, it is reassuring to see something like a silly challenge bring so much joy and success to people who need it most," Johnson said.