In the summer of 2014, a social media “ice bucket challenge” emerged and spread across the globe to multiple countries, including the United States of America, England, France, and even Germany. The purpose of this trend was to spread awareness about ALS, short for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. This neurodegenerative disease causes muscle weakness and atrophy by affecting brain and spinal cord nerve cells, similar to Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Pouring ice-cold water on someone symbolized the feeling of paralysis that people with ALS experienced due to their illness.
According to the ALS Association website, this viral trend inspired over 17 million individuals to take action and help raise money for research and care for people with ALS. This mission helped raise nearly $115 million for this cause.
This current call to awareness starting in late March 2025 is similar to the one back in 2014, which had a shared goal: to raise awareness for an important cause.
At the University of South Carolina, a student committed suicide due to struggles with their mental health. The students of the MIND (Mental Health Needs Discussion) Club at USC launched a #SpeakYourMIND campaign to raise awareness for people who are currently struggling with their mental health. They phrased the new Ice Bucket Challenge as “Speak Your Mind, Ice Bucket Challenge.”
Over the last few months, Clark students have been posting on their Instagram stories, nominating classmates and friends to continue to enact the challenge. Sophomore Emily Tatiyants expressed her love for this challenge. “We’re not only having a blast pouring buckets filled with ice and water on each other, we are also doing this to be a part of something important that drives people to donate and spread awareness for the importance of mental health,” Tatiyants said.
Some people on the internet are upset at this challenge. A user on TikTok is accusing the creators of the Speak Your Mind Challenge of blatantly stealing a challenge that was very unique to ALS and altering it to fit their cause, ignoring the original reason for the challenge. Another user on X, formerly Twitter, claims that pouring an ice bucket on their head has nothing to do with mental health.
Others criticized that the Speak Your Mind Challenge is overshadowing its actual purpose, deeming it eventually irrelevant since it died down fast. Most people didn’t even know it was to support a cause since almost all videos of the challenge barely mentioned the challenge’s purpose, which is to donate to mental health foundations. “The current mental health crisis in America demands more than cold water and the five seconds of attention we give each viral video on social media,” Patrick Minnerly, a journalist for The Daily Campus, said.
Students’ mental health is significant, and this challenge shouldn’t obscure it and instead shed light on it, so people can understand that students face many hard challenges. Whether it be the immense and challenging homework teachers assign, the many obligations and tests students face throughout their high school years, or the impossible tasks students complete to get into the university of their dreams. It is undoubtedly hard, but if students speak their minds, it can help prevent other cases of suicide and dramatically help improve their mental health.
