As most of you guys have probably seen the trend these days blowing up all over our facebook walls reading something about “Neknomination.”
Neknominations are short videos where essentially university kids drinking copious amounts of alcohol in ridiculous ways and then publicly nominating 3 others to join along in the drinking game. I have seen people beer bonging vodka– to drinking out of a shoe, to even shot gunning several beer upside down.
I have even been nominated 3 times myself publicly over facebook, but have turned the requests down. In my opinion, this is such a RIDICULOUSLY stupid competition and is just fostering terrible behaviour amongst our youth. However, I am intrigued at how this trend has spread like wild-fire from it’s origin in Australia.
The public video nominations continued to change and be altered, with the first version of this being a New Zealand “neknomination.” In the video first Kiwi nomination that went viral, the gentleman gave away food supplies to a homeless man, and publicly nominated 3 others to do the same. This was a brilliant use of taking advantage of the social media trend for a great cause! Thousands of videos followed, copying the trend of doing something good for the less fortunate.
Another public nomination I’ve been witnessing lately, has been amongst girls raising awareness for breast cancer. Girl’s have been taking “Selfie’s” for cancer awareness, but with a twist– they aren’t WEARING MAKEUP! Lots of celebrities have joined in on this, and joined along supporting the trend. The nice thing about this photo sharing is there is a distinct call for action as participants are supposed to hashtag #nomakeupselfie and are prompted to text 70099 BEAT to donate approx 3 euros to the Cancer Research Society.
This was an amazing shift in what used social media to spread something harmful and disgraceful to society, to actually prompting people to share photos/videos for the greater cause. And unlike slacktivism actually issuing a DIRECT CALL FOR ACTION, if it be donating a meal to the homeless, or donating directly to the cancer research society through a quick text message, it makes a huge difference.
I love this change in using the power of social media and virility to do something good. What are your guys’ thoughts on the viral spread of nominating people publicly to do something good over the internet?
Souces:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2588831/Women-taking-no-make-selfies-breast-cancer-accidentally-adopt-Polar-Bears.html
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/how-no-makeup-selfie-trend-suddenly-became-cancer-awareness-effort-156480
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/online-drinking-game-neknomination-raises-concerns/article16761879/
The usual social media circus…
To be honest I had no problems with the original “Neknomination” which was more about creativity and fun but turned into a chugging contest. Everyone seems to put things out of proportion nowadays. I do appreciate that once it did get out of hand and perhaps once many individuals lost faith in humanity many restored it by giving it a nice twist. However, there is always a down side to every story… Why must one be nominated to do something good? These same problems, those same gaps in society for which they had been nominated to act upon exist on any given day and is surely present in their every day life. So why, why must one be finally nominated to lend a helping hand? Also, I will make a pessimist assumption that most of those individuals that were nominated most likely did their act of kindness on that one day then went on to living their lives as usual. So to me it is still an example of slacktivism for they “act” on one particular opportunity, instead of building off this “act” and continue to be kind whenever they see an opportunity. Also, there is a flaw with these newer nominations which is that everyone is forced to act because if they don’t, they will be forever judged by their peers as these nominations are made public for everyone to see. There is no greater example of peer pressure. Leading on to my next issue with this whole idea in general. Why do individuals feel the need to use social media as a medium? Do you need to demonstrate to everyone that you can be kind? Do you need to receive public recognition for your work? Do you need that spotlight, is that what motivated you? So wouldn’t you be doing it for all the wrong reasons?
Trevor McKinney a little kid from a the great movie ‘Pay it Forward’ did not have a spotlight yet was able to accomplish the same goals.
Simply put, act kindly whenever possible. Open your eyes every day and be always open to always go that extra mile.
Great post! I also was astounded by how fast the neknomination phenomenon spread. I think there was definitely something psychological going on there. People love to challenge and one-up one another, and being able to share that accomplishment online (no matter how ridiculous it is) makes people feel good and part of the “circle” of nominees. Luckily, the same psychological processes can be applied to good causes, which is why people have taken advantage of the trend. Unfortunately, it seems as though the “no makeup selfie” nomination has taken a turn for the worst. I can’t find the article I saw recently, but it discussed how no one is mentioning cancer research anymore when they post a picture of themselves with no makeup. Now they just do it to impress their friends. In the end, I’m glad that this movement raised a decent sum of money, but this is a testament to how a message can get lost in the depths of the Internet.