<p>I think calling this groupthink is jumping the shark. It’s a of-the-moment fad that will be gone from our newsfeeds in a week. </p>
<p>Momof3sons, powerful!</p>
<p>Words escape me right now. </p>
<p>Hope the wedding went well. </p>
<p>Garland, I like your post too. I like the way you articulated that reaction to abasket’s feelings (and I also liked the reference to Shirley Jackson and “The Lottery.” Any post with a Jackson reference is okay-dokey in my book.) </p>
<p>The countdown begins. :-? </p>
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<a href=“Water too precious to waste on charity's campaign, Californian says”>Chicago News - Chicago Tribune - Chicago Tribune;
<p>No matter what I do, I will always be an individual. I’m not much for groupthink. It doesn’t actually work very well on me and it never did, not even when I was 16.</p>
<p>That said, I watched my oldest go through life, an extrovert who always joined in all of the fun, but never lost herself, and I learned from that. I learned to lighten up and join in. I say “yes” a lot more now than I used to in my thirties. I have a lot more fun.</p>
<p>That said, when I say, do it or do not, I really mean it. Do your own thing, there’s not a damn thing you can do better. </p>
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Yes. </p>
<p>My sister is so uplifted by watching all the ice bucket challenge videos. She’s spent a long ten years getting progressively weaker and has seen some small steps of progress with the research, but this level of funding may allow more rapid progress. Our family is thrilled by the increase in donations but can also understand those who don’t want to be asked or who feel pressured if called out to participate. We appreciate too that there are many other orphan diseases that aren’t well known and don’t get a lot of funding so I hope their day will come too. I wonder what the next viral fundraiser will be.</p>
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<p>I hope I was not one of those groupthinkers. If I was, I apologize. I have complete respect for individual differences and nobody’s feelings are ever wrong. </p>
<p>One of the people that I challenged had lost her dad to ALS. She STILL didn’t want to do the ice. And she didn’t. I didn’t give it a second thought. It just wasn’t her thing.</p>
<p>I see political posts from my friends who are all across the spectrum politically, with the presumption that I’ll hit like or a comment if I agree with their viewpoint on Ferguson / Israel / Iraq / Obama / Common Core / whatever. I like the ones I agree with and ignore the rest. Is that groupthink? Seems to me some are defining mere participation in social media as groupthink. </p>
<p>I think It can be groupthink. People often feel pressured to like those posts. Or like them because they believe everybody thinks that, whatever it is. Rarely do they know enough about the issue in question to know what they really think. I’m not doing the ice challenge and now the ice and the drought and PETA are competing. Apparently, there some animal testing issue with ALS research. Sigh. There’s always something.</p>
<p>PG–I was trying to explain what abasket has been trying to explain this whole thread; but you have been dismissing her feelings through a sort of reductive flattening this whole thread: “What you are describing isn’t really that; it’s just this.” </p>
<p>That’s just going to keep happening, isn’t it? You know? Nevermind. </p>
<p>“people do it for the “let’s jump on this bandwagon that’s popular for this short time” and then they will forget all about ALS.”</p>
<p>Does it really matter if most of the ice bucket participants / donors won’t actively sit and think about ALS, if now ALS has $xx million more with which to find research, etc? </p>
<p>“Does it really matter if most of the ice bucket participants / donors won’t actively sit and think about ALS, if now ALS has $xx million more with which to find research, etc”</p>
<p>I think everyone can agree in this case the end justifies the means. I think for detractors like myself it is a chance to examine the “lemming” mentality of social media and the reasons for it.</p>
<p>My feelings and responses lie closely with what abasket has described in her posts. I’m happy abasket spoke up and I’m happy that garland tried to further communicate that. </p>
<p>No one can deny the results of the ice bucket challenge. It’s success was unimaginable, but I, myself, see less than desirable characteristics in the means that I’d rather see go away before I can say the end justifies the means. </p>
<p>This is why I have mixed feelings. </p>
<p>That and I’m just over it. :P</p>
<p>I guess I just don’t see the lemmingness in it, because people who want to participate in it do so, and those who don’t, don’t. Being tagged to do something in Facebook is merely a well-meant suggestion. It’s not a commandment, and I really don’t get why some of you are viewing it as pressure-filled. I’m honestly trying, but there’s no “commanding” in it at all. It’s as light-hearted as it could possibly be. </p>
<p>PG, did you have a wonderful, unstressful, social experience in middle school? Because many people didn’t. Our reactions to being tagged or asked to contribute publicly to a challenge or even eating someone’s homemade cookie differ based on our past experiences. </p>
<p>What you are saying here is very logical – but often our reactions to something is not logical, but emotional based on that past. Middle school experiences – dealing with queen bees and social torture or exclusion when you don’t follow the crowd or wear the right thing – is just one example of the the past that could make someone uncomfortable with this sort of public calling out. Most of us grow out of these feelings, but they do resurface on occasion. </p>
<p>And some people still work with and deal with grown-ups with immature or mean tendencies (I just met a middle-aged queen bee, for example, who has a group of middle-aged women wrapped around her little finger). To them, a suggestion to contribute is not light-hearted, but pressure-filled. </p>
<p>I had bad experiences in junior high & high school,( a lot worse than being snubbed in the cafeteria), but I have put those behind me, for the most part.
I try to consciously remember that I choose my responses & I don’t need to dwell on negative stuff.
I find life is easier if I take things as face value and not hunt for motive. </p>
<p>The sad reality about the viral videos is that contributions are a drop in the bucket compared to govt funding is needed to really make a difference.
<a href=“Ice Bucket Challenge: Cash Raised Can't Fill Hole in ALS Research”>http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/ice-bucket-challenge-cash-raised-cant-fill-hole-als-research-n186356</a></p>
<p>Oh hell no - I was a major nerd and not remotely popular. You couldn’t pay me to go back to middle school or high school! I get those feelings!! </p>
<p>It seems to me that the Ice Bucket Challenge is this year’s Macarena–a summer fad that’s kind of amusing, although with the beneficial effect of raising a lot of money for a good cause. It doesn’t seem like it’s anything more than that. But I’m not on Facebook.</p>