I'm about to pour ice-cold water on your parade,
writes Brian Byrne. Or burn your bridges on a fire-walk. Whatever mismatched metaphors might be apt. But the kind of viralised social media 'challenges' which they represent bother me. Bother me badly.
I document on the
Diary what goes on in Kilcullen. Because that's what it is for, and because that is what I do. And I have reported on the 'ice bucket challenge' craze, though only in relation to the Kilcullen River Festival last weekend. Also, and in the same context, the 'Bumbulance Firewalk'. I gave both publicity as they happened, but with unease.
(And now, above and for the last time, Noel O'Connel's green dunking in The Spout last night.)
This whole 'nomination' thing has got out of hand. It's the old 'I dare you', which always had potential consequence. But these used to be very local and of relatively inter-personal consequence and rarely with the possibility of real harm.
Social media virality has changed all that. Personal video and potential instant 'local and global fame' has added both accessibility and impetus to 'flying' anything that somebody figures is worth doing, or having somebody else do. Because they are 'nominated' or dared to do. It also makes that dare thing seem much less of direct consequence to the nominator, if it's done through Twitter or Facebook. Which also makes doing the same thing in the pub prior to being drenched seem less an issue.
We quickly forget how such things have gone so badly wrong before. The severely alcoholic 'neck nominations' which took many lives around the world last year, in great part because of how easily the idea spread. And which cost an awful lot more, probably, in personal injury related to the 'dare' they spread exponentially, but which we didn't hear about in the social media 'chatter' around those nominations. In the end, of course, it all petered out from the bad publicity that eventually, and inevitably, rode the same social media roller coaster that begat them. But too late for those harmed ...
That motor neurone disease is the nominated beneficiary of the 'ice bucket' gig is not an issue for me. I had two friends who died of this horrible illness. Fellow motoring journalist Ferdia O'Dowd, and a lovely man who began his long RTE career at the same time as I did my shorter one, Colm Murray. I'm personally very aware of how bad this thing is, most directly with Ferdia. Less so with Colm, whom I met regularly with while he was still healthy, but didn't manage to do so after he was diagnosed. And RTE staff and journalists have raised a substantial sum in the last month on the 'Ice Bucket' for that cause. I don't begrudge that to the charity. All great in itself. I just can't abide the 'blackmail' element of the 'ice bucket' challenge.
It's like the chain letters of pre-internet. And since-internet, the stuff that comes through Facebook particularly which encourages you to 'like' and 'share' posts which will ostensibly gain you favour
(it can be financial, religious, or personal). Or which threaten loss or peril if you don't pass it on.
So here's my deal. I'm 70 years old on Sunday 31 August. To mark what I say 'it's only a number' thing, I'll be making a donation to motor neurone in Ireland. But I'm doing it because I want to, not because I'm being dared to do. And I'm suggesting that anybody who is challenged to being 'water-boarded' into it, which is what I figure this whole 'ice bucket' gig is very close to, just do it if you want to, but don't keep the blackmail going with nominations.
It doesn't mean anything if you do it because somebody else makes you feel you have to.
(And the 'Fire-walk? You'll need your feet for a long time. Just give the money, and forget the bravado. Hmm, that's advice too late now ... I photographed the 'ouch!'s)
OK, maybe I'm looking like a killjoy for the social media trendies. At my age, hey, maybe I'm entitled ... but also, I've been doing the internet thing since long before social media came along, so nobody can say I'm too old to have this kind of opinion.
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