The ice bucket challenge is taking the internet by storm yet again. In 2014, the ALS ice bucket challenge took over social media, and now, Instagram stories are filled with clips of the USC ice bucket challenge.
The USC MIND challenge was started by a club at the University of South Carolina called USC MIND. The goals of the club and the challenge are to break the stigma surrounding mental health, advocate for suicide prevention, and promote daily mindfulness.
“I think it’s super important to do the ice bucket challenge. It’s a good positive challenge to help spread awareness for something that a lot of people struggle with,” freshman Cassidy Carter said.
Students said they noticed the success of the trend and that it raised awareness.
“I think the challenge did what it was supposed to do,” said junior Ilias Mueller Harley. “I would go on Instagram and every single story I clicked on would be someone doing the challenge and then going on to nominate more people.”
The challenge has raised over $400,000 for Active Minds, which is the largest nonprofit in the United States. According to the Active Minds website, their goal is the same as USC MIND’s, which is to transform mental health norms across society.
“I think it’s great that the challenge has seen success in raising awareness and money,” sophomore Eric Venner said. “It’s super important that people struggling with mental health know there is always someone who is willing to help, and this challenge is proof for it.”
In a WJCL news article, Meredith Blackwell, a member of USC MIND, said the Instagram account started out with 300 followers—mainly just friends—but now it’s almost up to 900,000 followers.
“There is no doubt that it wasn’t successful,” sophomore Mehrad Malekpour said. “I remember when the account barely had ten thousand followers. It’s crazy it’s nearing one million.”
One reason why many people chose to do the challenge was solely because they were nominated.
“I don’t think everyone’s main goal of the challenge was to spread awareness, but it was still successful,” Carter said. “I don’t think that was my goal either. I mostly wanted to do it because it looked fun and I got nominated on Instagram.”
A main reason why the challenge was so successful is because many people were getting nominated online.
“I think that’s the main reason for the challenge in general. It’s online, so a lot of people see it, which makes it hard to say no to,” Malekpour said.
Sophomore River Westphal said he decided not to do the challenge because he didn’t feel interested in participating.
“I got nominated for the challenge but I didn’t really want to do it, because I didn’t feel like dumping some water on my head,” Westphal said. “I didn’t really care about the fact that everybody knew I got nominated, I still think it’s a great cause and super beneficial but I wasn’t super interested in it.”
Carter said that a big reason people end up doing the challenge is due to the social pressure.
“People are doing it because everyone else is, so when they get nominated online they want to conform to the group norms and behaviors,” Carter said.
