The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Critics are throwing cold water over the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, but there’s something to be learnt from the viral video campaign that’s made more than a splash using social media.

Just when I thought I might have got away with it, when the whole craze looked ready to combust, it finally happened. I was nominated to do the Ice Bucket Challenge.  Meaning: you can now expect me to dump icy cold water over my head, film it, and post it up on my social media with an nifty hashtag #icebucketchallenge or #MND for your viewing pleasure.  

More importantly, it will hopefully add to the chain and bring that little bit more attention to ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), also known as Motor Neuron Disease in the UK. As a progressive neurodegenerative disease, ALS/MND leaves many sufferers completely paralysed, incapable of feeding themselves and eventually unable to breath on their own. It is a truly devastating condition and whilst it affects relatively few people, only half of those diagnosed survive the first three years and only 10% the first ten. Dumping ice water on our heads is meant to remind us of the paralysing effects of the disease as the cold instigates a similar albeit much, much smaller and short-lived physiological response.

Anyone paying attention will have followed the challenge’s tidal sweep. Gaining momentum after personalities from US show, Morning Drive, took part live-on air, the campaign quickly earned massive celebrity shout-outs from Jimmy Fallon, Will Smith, Victoria Beckham and Benedict Cumberbatch (dowsed five times in his video).

Oh my days Benny :') Benedict Cumberbatch Ice Bucket Challenge http://t.co/t4FA3Skpgv
— The Doctors Bow Tie. (@Whovian_96) August 27, 2014

After that it rolled over to everyone else, hopping the Atlantic with a conspiratorial wink, encouraging social media uses worldwide to take part, donate and nominate.  It’s definitely made more than a splash. It’s swept across the globe in a tsnami of chilly, damp munificence.

Since becoming a social media phenomenon around three weeks ago the ALS Association has raised nearly £50 million (circa USD$80 million), roughly 500% more than it raised in the same period last year. It’s become so popular Macmillan Cancer Care and other charities have attempted to appropriate the campaign for themselves, to varying degrees of success.  As Dan Diamond wrote in Forbes, ‘the #ALSIceBucketChallenge—is everywhere. It’s annoying. But it’s working.’

However, as Diamond notes, many are growing tired of seeing the same videos over and over, those taking part have been accused of flagrant self-promotion rather than charitableness (aka: Slacktivism), and recently there’s been a sense of internet one-upmanship that has not always ended well.  It’s no longer enough to simply toss water over your head and shudder at the cold, now it’s necessary to endure several bucket loads, maybe even a forklift full – or an aeroplane – in order to gain the respect of your online buddies. The challenge itself should not be dangerous, and the number of funny, incredibly honest ‘fail’ videos could probably generate an entire episode of You’ve Been Framed but some people really have taken it too far. Reckless behaviour has allegedly been linked to the hospitalisation of one man and the death of a teenager in Inverkeithin, Fife. Part of the issue seems to be the peer-pressurised element of the Ice Bucket Challenge. Once you have been nominated, not performing can lead to criticism and even online abuse from ‘friends’ and followers.

Moreover, one of the risks is that the longer the campaign thrives, the more likely it seems to generate negative attention. The Guardian commented on this by suggesting that the social media that birthed the craze could also kill it. After all, there’s #droughtshaming to remind you that in places like Henan, China and California ‘taps have dried up, lakes and reservoirs are emptying and water wastage is being fined’. Plus some celebrities are refusing the challenge on ethical grounds. Pamela Anderson’s decision to forego the challenge because of reported medical testing on animals has already generated a following. The question of how much money is actually spent on salaries and publicity instead of research has similarly become a point of contention. 

People in drought-hit Henan do 'empty bucket challenge' instead of #IceBucketChallenge http://t.co/sQTWpE7PTs pic.twitter.com/MVcEgYbMMc
— China.org.cn (@chinaorgcn) August 23, 2014

But as we’ve already noted, the death knell could sound in the form of accidents and fatal injuries. Becoming associated with deaths and foolhardy egoism was the beginning of the end for Neknominate, which required participants to down alcohol and led to five UK deaths. As more become disillusioned with the plethora of soggy friends posting their videos the more likely it is for the negative press to take over the positivity and humour that has largely dominated thus far. Yet even Neknominate led to a more positive counter-campaign: ‘Donate-Nominate’, which asked participants to leave the beer and donate blood instead. It seems people want to use social media for good causes, even when posturing attempts to subvert it. Perhaps this is what we are seeing when people react against the participants who fail to mention the charity or cause.

Viral chains and popular organisations are not new. Ever since the Civil Rights Movement contemporary media (in particular television and radio) has been used to emphasise mass protests and popular causes. In 1986, Hands Across America instigated a benefit event in which 6.5 million people held hands in a human chain across the continental US. And in 1989, 2million people created a ‘Chain of Freedom’ across 600km to draw attention to the popular vision of Baltic independence from the USSR.  With so many involved, these human chains symbolised unity within a nation, gained international attention and like the Ice Bucket Challenge, emphasised the power of mass communication when the message was both emotionally captivating and visually stunning. The ALS Challenge may not be ‘emotional’ or ‘stunning’ per se, but it does tap into the desire to be part of a larger cause and there has certainly been some heart-wrenching content mixed in with the humorous and downright hilarious.

This hilarious, heartbreaking #ALSIceBucketChallenge is a reminder of what the craze is all about http://t.co/VVXO3wq5EM
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) August 21, 2014

What is poignant, is that it has appropriated Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to generate the perfect media storm. To make a disease and its charity personal as well as global. 

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has done everything right. Timed perfectly to coincide with summer sunshine, it took a niche plight, mixed in some celebrities (which led to more A-listers than probably ever anticipated), made it a personal challenge that everyone could interact and engage with and they kept it simple. They let it grow and take on a life of its own and here we are in the present, wondering where it might go next.

Whatever the verdict, be it a health risk or a meaningful act of charity, I will tipping a bucket over my head this evening.

Thank you for the nomination.

Je serai poète et toi poésie, 

SCRIBBLER

Run, Forest, Run

So You Ran a Half Marathon

I'm Half Impressed 

As a wee little child, my not-so-kindly sports teachers knew that I hated cross country. All the signs were there: I would dawdle, drag my feet, pretend anything to escape the horrors of lapping the same two fields a gazzillion times. And anything literally means anything. I think I once pretended that I had Parvovirus - a disease that ONLY DOGS GET and that I'd learnt about on Rolf Harris' Animal Hospital. 

Yet somehow, a decade or so later, I'm not-so-casually-running rather a lot further than the 1500m that once seemed so daunting. In fact, I finished the Edinburgh Half Marathon last week and you know what - I kind of LOVED it. It was on my list of  challenges that I want/need/should do as soon as possible and in January, I signed up, ready and armed with a cause that spurred me through training, through shin splints and eventually through the 13.1 miles that take you from Edinburgh to Musselburgh. 

The day itself probably couldn't have had a worse start for a first time experience. It was grey as the cobble-stoned Royal Mile and bleaker than bleak. Then it started to rain. Not luke warm May rain though. No, no. It was hard, cold, sheeting RAIN (capitals needed to emphasise the sheer weight of it) that literally had me and my fellow runners shivering and shaking as we struggled to warm up before the race. Plus, this was in the 'Pink' section with my friend Katie, which indicated we were aiming quite high with our original guesstimation of how fast we'd complete the course, and behind us two men in rather dashing lime-and-orange t-shirts discussed how they wanted to beat their personal best of 1:45. At that point, I stopped eavesddropping and felt a rush of pre-start nerves. 

What was I thinking signing up for this?! Why was I running with these Actually Know And Care Racers? Where are the Happy If I Finish Plodders that I could inevitably see myself being? 

As it turned out, the Plodders were some way  behind me in Gold and Black, but I only saw a few of them and it seems that it doesn't much matter where you start. This was fortunate as I found myself running with a group of fellow Breast Cancer Care runners quite early on, lost them around mile five, fell into step with a girl called Emily running for Marine Conservation around at mile seven, hit my 'wall' at mile nine when my feet started to literally throb but was rescued by the lovely Blue-and-Pink Lady whose name I never learned, made it all the way to mile twelve, saw that Blue-and-Pink was struggling someway behind me so slowed down, helped her back into a run and then staggered through the finish line in a sudden burst of sunshine. All a rather respectable time I might add.  

Oh yeah, this is definitely the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

There were definitely highs and lows to the whole experience. Being asked why I chose Breast Cancer Care made my eyes sting, pushing through the last four miles (where you literally run down a bendy road then run back up the same bendy road), walking fifteen minutes to the car afterwards when all the adrenalin was gone - those were some tough moments.  But that moment when the rain stopped as we ran along the Portobello seafront, or when Eye of the Tiger came onto my headphones, or being spurred back into the race by wonderful but complete strangers, or crossing the finish line, or calling my family to tell them it was finished - those moments were fantastic.  

And after the initial 'NEVER EVER AGAIN' as I stumbled away from the finish line came a euphoric 'OMG WHEN CAN I DO THE NEXT ONE'. So sure, I couldn't walk the next day (and even had to blow off a date Shock/Horror), but I raised a whopping amount of money for a great charity. In fact, this blog wouldn't be complete without a massive shout out:

THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO DONATED. 

YOU ARE HEROES. 

YOUR SUPPORT PUSHED ME IN THOSE MOMENTS WHERE IT HURT AND MADE THE BEST BITS EVEN SWEETER.

THANK YOU THANK YOU 

THANK YOU. 

Anyway, so this is my little post about running and half-marathons and all the ups and downs of my experience in Edinburgh flat and rapid race. Still on my list are things like 'run a full marathon' and 'survive a Tough Mudder'. And even though I think I'll leave the Iron Man to people like my brother who drink protein/pay homage to their abs and I can probably live without swimming the Channel... Never Say Never!  

Je serai poète et toi poésie,

SCRIBBLER

Musings over a Graduate Application

LIVING IT UP IN LIMBO

Warning: 
If you suffer from Graduatewithnojobitis you should know that this post does have the ability to improve your mood. But if you stop in the middle you could end up suffering from the following conditions: moodiness, sense of impending doom, anxiety, nausea, anger, grief, inexplicable terror, nightmares, insomnia and uncontrollable weeping. 

If you do experience any of these symptoms scroll straight to 

the bottom of the page for a video of funny cats. 

*

Yet another application is in, another deadline met. Tomorrow I will finish the next one. And at some point I will write something poignant for my Master's degree, pen an article for the university newspaper and then embroil myself in the editing needed for a client's novel. I've quickly realised that whilst being a postgraduate is fantastic, in eight months time I'll be out on my own, dipping my toe into Real Life. 

This is slightly terrifying. 

Especially when Real Life doesn't seem to want to give me, or a load of my equally qualified friends, a job. Not because finding a job is hard - it's ridiculously easy to find a job using Milkround or Guardian Jobs or the newspaper or just a cursory internet search using key terms like 'Graduate Publishing' or 'PR Entry Level' or 'Marketing 2014'. Earning that job, that much desired position, that omg-it-actually-pays-a-salary role: that is the tricky part. 

So far I've only met with the Apologetic Email of Doom and the Utter Silence of Rejection. 

And yeah rejection kind of hurts. Maybe only a little the first time. Better luck next time right? The third, fifth and tenth time it niggles a little, stings a tad. Then by the twelfth or the thirtieth, it's hard to keep yourself from wondering "what’s wrong with me?!". It's incomprehensible. Because you’re great. Really you are. You deserved that administrative assistant role with a retail company you’ve never heard of because you’re actually a wonderful human being and there’s no explanation as to why you’re not having any luck attaining that precious J. O. B. Thus, by the time you’re on the umpteenth rejection email, you’re probably reassessing priorities. Maybe thinking... well... Costa will tide me over until someone hires me. Only COSTA rejects you as well. Because when 1,700 people apply for 8 jobs at a Costa, suddenly it’s not so simple.

In fact, it’s kind of grim. There’s thousands of us desperately scrabbling away at the job market, studying our carefully reworded cover letters and our personalised CVs, wondering what we’re not doing that Jennifer with the purple handbag from that philosophy class in first year did better than us.

So what do we do? How do we change this? Is it even in our power to change things or are we stuck in the rut of our economic climate? Should we be blaming the reputations of young people as bad timekeepers and over-dreamers, expecting to waltz into their ideal job at 22? Should we be eyeing up our international counterparts and believing they’re stealing our jobs? Or should we be readying our boots to kick out the 'old people' who are living longer, working longer and therefore holding onto jobs for longer? A fair few are happy to simply point out ‘At Least It’s Not 2009’. Yes, therein lies our silver-lining, fellow graduates, it’s not the beginning of the worst fiscal crash in decades. 

I can see your frowns: surely there HAS to be something better than that? ....

A New Yorker Cartoon by Mike Twohy

YES THERE IS GOOD NEWS.

Firstly, the economy has improved and with any luck it'll keep improving. Plus, all those traditional jobs that were cut down during the fiscal crash - they're not the only options anymore. There are loads of start ups, groups of young people with big dreams who are keen to see the world working slightly differently. Things aren't as bad as some of the stories suggest. And whether it takes six days, six weeks or six months - statistics say that IT WILL HAPPEN. Don't give up. 

Which leads me to Point the Second: our age is digital. We can do LOADS using our shiny computers and fizzbubbling interwebz. Not only can you make your CV look awesome and google great cover letters. You also can literally stalk companies using online media too, because if Little Miss Brilliant or Mr Great-Is-My-Middle-Name from That Awesome Company leaves to start in Another Pretty Fantastic Role then there's a new vacancy. People might move up and create a vacuum for little intrepid graduates to slope their way into. And then there's things like Linkedin. Sure we've all heard it before - USE YOUR CONTACTS, SAYS EVERYBODY ALL THE TIME - but now you can really track what everyone you went to university with is doing. So if your friend has a job at a place you think sounds interesting, you can ask them about it. You can find out what they did and what they think of it now. Even if they can't give you a knee in, they might be able to give you some tips. 

Thirdly: you are not alone. We're all in the same boat. We're young, soon-to-be-unemployed-non-students and whilst the boat might look like it's chockablock and about to sink, it's completely natural to be in this position. Some will be thinking OOOOOOO SO MUCH LOOKS AMAZING I JUST CAN'T CHOOSE. And others will be frowning at the Jobs List just praying that one day something comes up that they Actually Find Interesting. The point is that after some self-analysis and brutal honesty, we will figure out what to apply for, who to apply to and whether we actually want it or if we're driven by desperation. We will make it. Eventually. One person at a time until our younger siblings have caught up with us. And then we'll go try Australia. 

So basically, there are things to look forward to and whilst we're all panicky because we're freaking out (secretly, on the inside, all the time) we do have the option to take a little bit of time and figure ourselves out as well as our jobs. We don't have to be fully-fledged-fifty-somethings until we are fifty-somethings. And even then I doubt we'll worry too much about actually being fifty-somethings. We have the time to misspend a little bit of this limbo period working things out. It will suck at times. It will hurt at times. It will probably be the most depressing thing you've ever experienced ever sometimes. But the silver-lining is that there's always the chance that next time you'll receive the email that says YES. WE WANT YOU. YOU'RE HIRED. Because we'll plod on together, hoping and dreaming and wishing that that email already arrived, and we'll make sure the boat doesn't sink by watching videos of funny cats. Like this one. They bring out videos every month. BOOM. 

MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOUR. AND MINE.

Je serai poète et toi poésie,

SCRIBBLER

Durham University - FAQs for the Curious

Welcome to Durham. 

My third university in five years. 

I've begun to realise these past few weeks that somehow I've a tendency to live in beautiful places surrounded by history and brilliant people. 

I grew up outside of London, surrounded by fields and with a view of the night sky, then I went to school in a rather idyllic spot on Hertford Heath before I fled north for university. There, I settled into the Jekyll and Hyde wonder that is Edinburgh and after two years, I took a break to travel West. All the way to the sunny blue skies of North Carolina for a study abroad year that inspired the creation of this blog. Of course, after returning to my beloved Scottish home-away-from-home for my final year, I graduated, worked all summer and ended up moving for my postgraduate year to here. Durham. Another beautiful city swathed in history both ancient and less ancient. 

But before I tell you about any of my adventures thus far, here are some rumour-based Frequently Asked Questions that required an answer: 

DURHAM IS A SCHOOL FOR ANTS Everyone has a habit of thinking of Durham as a tiny wee town in the middle of no where, but compared to Chapel Hill, Durham is a thriving metropolis. Plus it's right next to Newcastle so when a dose of city life is needed, it's not too hard to hop a train to somewhere a little bigger. Also, when I think about how many places students used in Edinburgh, it probably averages out - only it's all in one place here... rather than a slog down Lothian Rd. 

DURHAM STUDENTS ARE OXBRIDGE REJECTS Ok so this may have a kernel of truth in it somewhere, lots of people both undergrads and postgrads seem to have at least considered either Scylla or Charybdis whilst they were applying. And 'Never Have I Ever Applied to Oxford' is a regular laugh. But then a huge number of my Edinburgh friends were also post-Oxbridge applicants. And several people I know who attended Manchester or Exeter or went overseas. Durham's not really so different from any top university in this regard.

EVERYONE MARRIES EVERYONE ELSE Admittedly, I happen to know one of the cutest examples of Durham Marriage statistics (they're currently retired and coming up to their 30th Anniversary) but I'm not sure if it's completely true what they say about marrying your Duzza boyfriend or girlfriend. As of now, I've heard that 1/10 students marry their S/O from Durham, that 1/4 marry their S/O from Durham, that 1/5, 1/25, 1/100 marry their S/O from Durham... I think we need a statistic that everyone can agree on.

Rah Rah Rah Blahblahblueblah

COLLEGES ARE LIKE GENTLEMAN CLUBS One of the questions I'm most frequently asked is whether or not the collegiate system is elitist, exclusionary, prejudiced towards certain characters etc but so far all I've really noticed as a postgrad is that I love the people I live with because we're all work hard, play hard types and that being part of a college is a little like being part of a student society with the nights out, formals, intramural sports teams (or in this case intracollegiate) etc. Perhaps this is different for undergrads.


DURHAM STUDENTS ARE ALL BLUE-BLOODED I've yet to meet a lord. Actually, I've yet to meet an heir/ess of any kind. That's not to say they're not here (I know my sister has a couple friends with lives straight out of Made In Chelsea) but they don't inundate the market square. Especially not on a Friday.  

BUT THEY ARE ALL SOUTHERN RIGHT? There are a lot Southerners here at Durham - myself included - and even those people who aren't RP-English speaking folk from the Home Counties somehow speak like they are. It took me all of three weeks to realise that one guy in halls is actually Welsh because he speaks like Prince William and no matter how many times I'm told that another boy is from Cornwall, I just can't hear it. As it turns out, despite the neutralising effect Durham Cathedral's shadow has upon dialectal differences, there are people from all over the country and all over the world. 

DURHAM IS HOGWARTS. Yes and No. The cathedral was used for various different parts of the Harry Potter films. Dumbledore fell to his death from the top of the bell tower. McGonagall's classroom is just off the cloisters. The cloisters are the setting for the famous Harry/Hedwig scene (and potentially that bit with the Grey Lady - a ghost also claimed by Durham). The Cathedral Library actually could be part of Hogwarts. And when you're walking home along Framwellgate Bridge, it's hard not to believe you're in Hogsmeade. But technically, Hogwarts actually belongs to George Percy.


So there are some of the rumours and some of the truths. I will tell you adventures next time.

Je serai poète et toi poésie, 
SCRIBBLER