WOW! That's Cold!

The world I live in now is not even close to the world I grew up in. When I was growing up you were considered technologically advanced if you had a solar powered calculator and a digital watch. Now, in literally the blink of an eye, you can be talking with someone on the other side of the world, and not only talking with them, you can see them, face-to-face via a computer or even a phone. We can know anything that's happening in the world in minutes simply by sitting down at our desks and looking at a website. Through sites like Facebook and Twitter, we know people's thoughts and feelings, even celebrities. We have adopted a whole new vocabulary with this technology run world: hashtag, Youtube, tweet, Skype, facetime, social media and going viral to name a few. It is the last two in the list that I want to talk about today. Ever since Facebook appeared on the scene 10 years ago, it has grown to something that has become a normal part of our everyday lives. It is the premier social media site. If you are on Facebook, and if you aren't, I would venture to say you are one of very few, you have reconnected with old friends, connected with new, and had the opportunity to share your thoughts and feelings with potentially 1000's of people in minutes. Talk about "six degrees of separation." With the start up of Youtube it became possible to share virtually anything with "the world" on video. I remember once being in absolute awe that at 2AM in the wee hours of a Saturday morning that I could go to my computer, log on to Youtube and pull up a video on how to finish a knitting project. Right there in the middle of the night, a complete stranger was teaching me how to finish my scarf. Youtube has been used for everything from make-up tutorials, to self-promotion in the entertainment industry to posting music videos. It's brought instant fame to the average Jill or Joe, and helped music groups like Pentatonix reach their millions of fans at the unbelievable cost of NOTHING! That's right. It's FREE to post on Youtube. It is free advertising. Now what enables the video I post today to be seen by millions tomorrow? It has to do with something called "going viral," meaning someone shares it, who shares it with someone else, who shares it with someone else, and so on and so on. You get the idea, it catches like a virus, and before you know it, the video has been seen by millions. Combine something going viral with Facebook's social connections, and you have an unbeatable combination!
In recent days this unbeatable combination has taken the form of something called "The Ice Bucket Challenge" People started making videos of themselves getting drenched by a bucket of ice water, but before being doused they are challenging friends to also take the challenge, and if not to donate to an ALS foundation. Some are asking people to do both, and then they get ice water dumped on them or they dump it on themselves. Sound silly? Maybe it is, but it has gone viral, and everybody is doing it from the advanced ALS patient who started it to celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Jack Black and Adam Levine to sports stars and medical teams to just plain folks like me. And at last report, donations have topped 10 million dollars. You read that right, 10 MILLION!!!! Some people have commented on Facebook on some of the videos posted asking what pouring ice water over your head has to do with raising money for ALS - the debilitating disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord? In fact, some of them are pretty negative. The act of the ice water dousing does nothing, no more than the act of running cures breast cancer or wearing a red ribbon on your lapel cures Aids. What it does do is raise awareness. As these infectious videos of people challenging friends to take the challenge spread, the world is learning about the disease and are obviously inspired to donate. $10 million is a pretty good measure of success! So to the naysayers, I say this. 1) Why do you care? 2) If you think it's silly, stop watching it! 3) It's not hurting anyone! In fact it's helping...A LOT!!! One of my mother's best friends was always the life of the party until ALS took her life away. That was over 40 years ago. Maybe in another 40 years or hopefully less the 10 million + dollars that's raised because of a silly little challenge will make this viral craze obsolete. We can only hope! If you'd like to see me get doused paste the following address in your browser, and donate if you're able!  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152610398580199&set=vb.618970198&type=2&theater