Gone In A Flash

Robbie Byrne investigates the mechanics behind the rise and fall of social media charity campaigns.From Kony 2012 to the No Make-up Selfie, there is yet to be a campaign in the brief lifespan of social media that sustains its participation rate from peak popularity to the present day. In a world where celebrities hold sustained trend rankings for perpetuity – despite not doing anything particularly interesting, viral charity campaigns seem more akin to Roswell ‘47 – they land, create a big splash and vanish into the void of space. But why in a society entombed by social media and all genres of philanthropy would this be the case?The above graphic of this summer’s social media phenomenon, the Ice Bucket Challenge is a perfect means through which to illustrate this point. In red are United States’ searches for ALS, the condition that the Ice Bucket Challenge sought to raise money for. As expected, search hits remain consistent for the first seven months of 2014. Then, for three weeks in August the heat signature grows tenfold, followed by Ice Bucket Challenge searches, which lie below in purple.So what ignites these campaigns spontaneous virality? As Aishling details the campaigns earliest steps, I’ll take the matter up from July 15th when television host, Matt Lauer, performed the challenge live on NBC’s Today Show, a programme that maintains one of American’s highest young audience demographics. Five million viewers were instantly exposed to the challenge, who in turn shared Lauer’s footage through social media platforms, while performing the challenge themselves without nomination. From here, social media and further celebrity endorsements took over from television- a twentieth century media format.While a simple television show may seem extraneous, it became the Ice Bucket Challenge’s event horizon, one that acted as the crossover point from adult based, traditional communication forms to modern-day youth orientated social media forums. Novelty philanthropy became virality through the power of the humble hashtag as the power of social media lowered participation requirements through innate tagging processes, smartphones with social media integration and smooth online transaction processes. Video became the ultimate technology to facilitate reaction, while social media was the perfect medium through which to distribute.

This ease of creation and distribution allowed each participant of the challenge to whip up an intrinsic part of the human conscience – to show the best part of ourselves to the world.

Using information provided by twitter hashtag tracker CartoDB, it is possible to see that the first geotagged tweet of a homegrown Ice Bucket Challenge Video came from the UK on August 1st and Ireland (Co. Wexford) on August 5th before spreading across central Europe to Russia eight days later. Then as if the world’s subconscious was in perfect unison, the phenomenon peaked globally in the exact same time period: August 18th to 21st.This ease of creation and distribution allowed each participant of the challenge to whip up an intrinsic part of the human conscience – to show the best part of ourselves to the world. The Ice Bucket Challenge, likewise the No Makeup Selfie and Movember became social proof of our interaction with the world, eliminating a fear of exclusion in a physically hermetic society. The more creative the challenge, the further an interpretation would spread, therefore expanding the creator’s stamp on the world.As a social exercise, it is fascinating, one that evokes the ‘Hive Mentality Theory’ detailed by Dr. Thomas Seeley of Cornell University. Seeley argues that every decision in the beehive is essentially a committee act, where every individual act is decided by popular consensus. To explain this, Seeley details a time at the end of a hives lifespan when scout bees are sent out to determine a suitable location for a new hive. Upon return the bees perform the famed ‘waggle dance’ to champion their chosen sites, the swarm then unites by some primitive gestures as to their chosen location.Seeley’s theory provides us with most important insight into spontaneous virality of the Ice Bucket Challenge, allowing us to see the Challenge as more of an affirmation of us as a homogenous people who are intrinsically connected, albeit in a hierarchical form where the celebrity represents the bee scouts and us, the hive.However, is the popularity of such a challenge down to a single word – integration? In a sense, yes, but there are also tertiary factors to charity-spun social media phenomena. Pleasant summer temperatures allowed the Ice Bucket Challenge seem more attractive, while the cold November weather perfectly suits the growth of some stay warm facial whiskers in the form of Movember. Another factor co consider is masochism – that sudden rush provided by the Ice Bucket Challenge was worth it in the mind of the individual, as suffering equated to curative benefits for the poorly.

As September opened its doors to autumn, Ice Bucket Challenge tagging had reached its peak, tripped and began a horrific plummet into oblivion.

As September opened its doors to autumn, Ice Bucket Challenge tagging had reached its peak, tripped and began a horrific plummet into oblivion. In less than ten days Google Trend levels had collapsed to pre August levels. Most observers dismissed this phenomenon as proof that the public simply got sick of the stunt, but the reality is a little more complex.A viral charity stunt resembles virtual factory with a dwindling supply chain – the more people who complete the event, the smaller the pool of resources become to restock. Therefore, as the group of those who participated gets beyond a certain point, while celebrities taking up the challenge dry up, it becomes no longer socially acceptable for the smaller group to perform the challenge, nominated. Think about it. Wouldn’t it seem odd if your friend carried out the challenge today, four months after the craze? So, in an inversion of sorts from the Hive Mentality, our willingness to seem socially homogenous plays a key role in hastening of the challenge’s demise.This brings me on to the final part in the demise of a viral charity campaign: The rise of another. Using the Syria war as a stable news source for the year, the above graph highlights the brevity of 2014’s social media charity participatory campaigns. No one campaign conflicts another. As one of 2014’s charity campaigns collapses, another takes its place as if a victorious empire rises from the ashes of the defeated. The attention span of the public conscience is thus shortened, encouraging another online charity campaign with a new, more innovative or wackier marketing trick up its sleeve to become viral once again in a relentless cycle.So what kills the viral charity campaign so fast? A heady mix of overprescribed volunteers, an unwillingness to stand out, some friendly rivalry, and of course public fatigue all appear to play their part in killing off even the most fervent charity stunt. The instantaneous virality and desertion of phenomenon such as the Ice Bucket Challenge, Kony 2012 and the No Make Up Selfie are complex social matters intrinsically entwined in the digital realm of social media. Explanations of such lead to us to understand not only the phenomena themselves, but also the rapid pace in which humans adapt to new ideas and mould themselves to fit into society through the incorporeal world of social media.