“My name is … and thank you to … for nominating me for the USC SpeakYourMIND challenge. I’d like to nominate… ”
If you have been swiping through Instagram stories over the past few weeks, you have probably seen several stories of friends getting drenched with ice-cold water. Why is everyone choosing to get soaked in their clothes on a random afternoon? This challenge comes from a University of South Carolina club called USC MIND.
USC MIND recently took to social media platforms to raise money for Active Minds and mental health awareness with its “SpeakYourMIND” challenge. It began in late March and continues to spread across Instagram and TikTok. USC MIND is a “mental illness needs discussion” club that believes in “the power of open dialogue, daily mindfulness and suicide prevention.” With their recent viral ice bucket challenge, they have gained more than 877,000 followers on Instagram.
The Oracle sent out a survey to the entire student body and received 59 responses. Out of these 59 students, 64.4 percent said they participated in the challenge. Among those students is sophomore Charlotte Joe.
“I did [the challenge] because I was like, ‘This is for a great cause,'” Joe said. “But it was really unclear at first for me of what the cause was because I remember, a little while back, there was one for ALS, and then I had to look this one up because no one was saying in their videos. So I definitely wanted to participate [to] spread awareness.”
The rules of the challenge are simple: Within 24 hours of being nominated, record yourself doing the ice bucket challenge. In your video, nominate up to five people to do the challenge by tagging them, use the hashtag #SpeakYourMIND and tag @uscmind.
Despite being nominated multiple times, junior Belén Haro has not participated in the challenge. She said she has been busy keeping up with extracurriculars and preparing for prom, which took place this past weekend.
“I do plan to do it sometime this weekend,” Haro said. “I think the value of the message is important. I just personally have not had time to do it, but I encourage other people to do it, but not forget the message of like the mental health awareness.”
In their videos, only a few people shared the reason behind the challenge, Joe said, which shifted the focus of the trend away from its original intention.
“Only a few people were saying the cause in [their video] … so I was like, ‘What is this really for? ‘ So I definitely felt like it was kind of a popularity contest,” Joe said. “I feel like it would have been less the popularity contest if more people [said] the cause in their video.”
Although Avery Reynolds (’29) did not participate herself, she poured the bucket of water on her friends to help them with their challenge. Reynolds said she also thinks there was a social element to the challenge.
“I think definitely a lot of people are really appreciative of being nominated,” Reynolds said. “I think it makes a lot of people feel good personally that they felt like a lot of people think of them when they think of this challenge.”
Math teacher Matthew Bartha said he heard a few students talking about the challenge in class, unsure whether or not the challenge was for the University of Southern California or University of South Carolina. In thinking about how effective internet trends are in spreading awareness of important causes, Bartha said he does not think they are good long-term strategies for awareness.
“Information is disseminated so fast now, where if someone feels passionate about something, they can reach millions instantly on one of the social media apps,” Bartha said. “[But] it’s like, something is only cool for like, 20 minutes, and then it’s not cool anymore. So in terms of sustained effort or progress towards whatever that cause is, I think that’s a little bit harder to come.”
When thinking about “ice bucket challenges,” many remember the 2014 social media challenge meant to raise money for ALS research. Joe compared the challenges and considered which was more productive in achieving its goal.
“I was kind of young, but I remember it was going on for a while,” Joe said. “I feel like in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, more people were donating to the foundation and talking about donating. So I feel like comparing the two, I think the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was more effective … I feel like mostly Gen Z is participating in this challenge, and when there’s more generations connected, it can become more effective.”
What resonated with Haro most about the challenge was the wide range of participants from places across the United States to international countries.
“It shows us how socially interconnected we are because I see people that live in all the way in the middle of nowhere, like Michigan or Ohio, and it somehow jumped all the way to California,” Haro said. “It was kind of beautiful in that moment, where it really started in South Carolina [and] ended up all over the world. I think that’s the beauty of it — that we’re all going through that same mental health struggle, but we can all connect together and participate this challenge even though it’s quite sometimes a little scary or painful, especially with the cold ice water. But I think it just brings us together.”
The clips in the compilation above were provided by each video’s creator.
