Your Social Identity

I feel like social identities have become a particularly interesting topic in the last few weeks as people have completed or not completed the ice bucket challenge for ALS. I have to disclaim the rest of this post by saying that I support absolutely any method of fundraising for charities that anyone can come up with! However, I think the point should be to ALSO raise awareness about the issues involved and I really don’t think that people know any more about ALS then they did before the challenge went viral.

I do think that people value their social identity more than they value money. 

What percentage of people completed the challenge (or have done a whole host of other things on Facebook) just to “save face” in front of their friends? I blatantly refused to do the challenge and donated money instead and got name-called. Really classy. 

I think I’ve seen interesting sides of people throughout all this. Obviously, I have friends who know exactly what it’s all about, why people are doing it and what is symbolizes and they donate $100 even after dumping ice on their heads – Those people get nothing but my applause. But I do hope that some people will become more AWARE in general. Aware of themselves if nothing else. Don’t let your internet persona change you and don’t do things just because “everyone is doing it”. Didn’t we learn anything in grade school?