Many people felt the chill of winter this summer after dumping buckets of ice over their heads or jumping into bathtubs overflowing with ice cubes. While some may assume this was done in an effort to escape the barely-there blistering heat of this summer, it was actually the result of many accepting the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

The Ice Bucket Challenge was started to raise awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS is a lethal disease that attacks the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, resulting in involuntary muscle movement.

So what does ice have to do with ALS?

Nothing.

The Ice Bucket Challenge was designed to raise money for research by challenging participants to either donate $100 to ALS or dump ice water on their heads.

This “challenge” isn’t the answer.

Scrolling through my Instagram, Facebook and even my Twitter feeds, the only thing I’ve seen are 10-15 second videos donned with hashtag #ALSIceBucketChallenge. While social media is credited with giving life to the challenge, I also blame it for killing the challenge.

What began as a fundraiser ended as merely a hashtag. It’s become something many are doing just because their friends are doing it, just because it’s what is “trending,” just because they don’t want to be left out.

These 15 second videos have very little to do with “raising awareness” outside of saying “ALS” in the video. Every video is the same: “My name is So-and-so and I was nominated for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge by A-different-so-and-so. I nominate Person X and Person Y. You have 24 hours to complete the challenge. Good luck. *Pours bucket of ice over head*”

None of these videos contain any information about the disease, why the money being raised is needed or how the money will be used. As writer Will Oremus points out, “More than anything else, the ice bucket videos feel like an exercise in raising awareness of one’s own zaniness, altruism, and/or attractiveness in a wet T-shirt.”

I couldn’t have put it more accurately. One of the videos on my Instagram timeline was a kid belly flopping into an icebath. Another portrayed a guy laying on a field as a pickup truck pulled up next to him, someone opened the tailgate and what seemed like an endless waterfall of ice water poured out over the kid. I can’t even begin to guestimate the amount of videos on my feed that are blatantly posted just to show off girls – and guys – in their underwear.

The challenge isn’t even a challenge. Who wouldn’t want to go outside, in the middle of summer, and jump into a swimming pool because someone nominated them to in the name of medical research? It’s also been reported that many are using warm water instead of cold. If this is the case, why add #IceBucket to your video?

The Ice Bucket Challenge has morphed itself into an ineffective fundraising campaign and an Instragram show-and-tell. I doubt many of these kids that are posting videos are actually even donating to ALS.

I like to think the Ice Bucket Challenge peaked this week when Shakira accepted the Challenge and then nominated the pope (don’t expect the pope to accept the challenge though as the ALS Association donates some of its money to Planned Parenthood to fund embryonic stem cell research), and is starting to die down.

Even though videos posted last night show Screaming Eagles over in Eagle Village accepting the Ice Bucket Challenge, USI was ahead of the hashtag when it comes to cold water donations when Allison Kinney ran through the UC fountain in May.

The difference was, her challenge was more effective.

Posting a roughly one minute video to her Facebook page to explain not only what she was doing and why, but who it was benefiting, Kinney took on the Cold Water Challenge. As a result of accepting the challenge, Kinney was required to pay $10 to a charity of her choice before drenching herself with cold water. She then nominated friends to take the challenge, giving them 24 hours to accept. Should they decline, they were then required to donate $100 to the charity Kinney selected.

Not only did the Cold Water Challenge actually require charitable donations to be made, it gave participants the ability to choose where their money went – to causes they were knowledgeable and passionate about.

This isn’t to say that ALS doesn’t need or deserve donations; it’s to say that we need to stop using charity as an excuse to create a social media fad that accomplishes very little.