Photo Courtesy Scott Peek
It is inevitable for the majority of teenagers nowadays to witness trends and dances that are taking over their feeds daily. It seems that almost every week, a new trend is dominating Instagram and TikTok. As of late, the USC Ice Bucket Challenge has skyrocketed in popularity across the country.
This is not the first ice bucket challenge to take over the internet. In 2014, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge flooded the Internet, with celebrities such as Lebron James to Beyoncé taking part to raise awareness and funding for the neurodegenerative disorder.
The USC challenge focuses on the issues that arise with mental health awareness and suicide prevention. The University of South Carolina Mental Illness Needs Discussion (MIND) club launched the #SpeakYourMIND challenge on Instagram, nominating a few of their friends to participate in the trend with the hopes that it would catch on. The trend trickled down through friend groups, families and communities, with hundreds of thousands of participants eventually taking part in the challenge.
Senior Brandon Kim, Co-Founder of the Mindful4Life Club, believes that the challenge is a unique and fun way to spread awareness on the problems that arise from mental health issues.
“It’s a fun and refreshing way to face the challenges of mental health without having to be fully serious about the topic,” said Kim. “It’s a good idea to have fun with the idea so that it appeals to a younger audience.”
Many teenagers and young adults in America, especially men, tend to laugh and shy away from talking about mental health, leading them to ignore their feelings and feel isolated in their circumstances. Active Minds, the non-profit for which the challenge raises money, is the largest nonprofit in the United States that mobilizes youth and young adults to transform mental health norms nationwide.
The trend has caught on and has continued to grow throughout the past few weeks because of the style of the challenge; each participant nominates three friends who have to complete the challenge within the 24-hour deadline. However, one problem that Kim sees in the challenge is that few people acknowledge the actual message behind the challenge before participating.
“One thing I think that they could have done better with this challenge was if people had introduced the meaning of the challenge before dumping the ice water on their head,” said Kim. “I still think it was a great idea to keep people engaged and aware of mental health problems.”