#necviral

For week 5 viral post I have chosen to do the #DropAndGiveMe10 challenge. I am not going to lie, I struggled a good amount on this assignment. I originally picked the mannequin challenge but as I was researching it it seemed so superficial and dumb it is where people freeze randomly in groups, it did not promote anything or any change in the world. I wanted to find a challenge that truly was making a difference in people's lives, as the ALS challenge has. So I started searching for a different challenge to report on and at first I came across the give them 20 challenge which is around the same idea as the drop and give me 10 challenge but you do not donate money and it is to help find jobs for veterans and is suppose to show people the challenge veterans face trying to find jobs when they are back home. Which I also think is a wonderful idea. But feel the challenge is poorly executed so I moved on and continued searching. Eventually I came across the drop and give me 10 challenge and I have dedicated to chose it for my assignment. I really liked the idea of a challenge giving children scholarships and educational opportunities that they may not have gotten to experience otherwise.

As I began to researching the drop and give me 10 challenge I have learned that it was founded by the Fallen Patriots, which is a 100% non profit organization that uses all of the donations(direct quote from the websites mission statement) “to provide college scholarships and educational counseling to military children who have last a parent in the line of duty.”  Something else that I really like about this foundation is the fact that on their main page you can see their financial audits for the year which I think is really cool and shows they are not hiding things. All in all I think the Fallen Patriots is a wonderful foundation and I hope that the drop and give me 10 challenge resurrects and goes even more viral than it had in the past.  

How to:

The drop and give me 10 challenge was created by the Fallen Patriots. There are four steps to completing the challenge.

Step one: Decide how much money you are going to pledge for each push up you can do.

Step two: Film yourself completing the challenge. In the video also challenge three of your friends to complete the challenge also.

Step three: Post your video online on different social media sites such as; Youtube, Facebook, twitter, or Tumblr. Use the hashtag #DropAndGiveMe10 challenge.

Step four: Make your donation.

Here is a video example of someone doing the drop and give me 10 challenge. He pledged $2 a push up and did 10 push ups so he will donate $20 then he challenged 5 people to also do the challenge instead of the regular three.

History:

The Fallen Patriots Foundation was founded in 2002 by David Kim, who had served next to Sergeant William Delaney Gibbs from the 7th infantry division in Panama, who was killed just 5 five days before Christmas in 1989. He had left behind a wife and unborn daughter. David Kim was inspired by Sargent Gibb’s sacrifice and that is why he founded the Fallen Patriots foundation in 2002 when David Kim returned to the United States.  

Facts:

Research conducted by The Lucas Group has found that an estimated 20,000 dependents have been left behind by troops killed in the line of duty over the past 35 years needs some financial assistance.

97% of casualties are mean, leaving single mothers to care for their families. 63% of surviving spouses make less than 50,000 a year.

The Fallen Patriots foundation has helped almost 800 kids go to college. The Fallen Patriots Foundation has also donated over sixteen million dollars financial aid and educational opportunities since being founded in 2002.

But does it have a viral SPARK(T)?

I had actually never heard of the drop and give me 10 challenge until I was looking for charitable challenges on Google. It did go viral, just not as viral as the ice bucket challenge had. I believe that the drop and give me 10 challenge has the potential to go as big as the ALS Ice bucket challenge did.

If we think about SPARK(T) the drop and give me 10 challenge has it.

It is Sharable. You do the challenge in a video form and challenge three of your friends to do the challenge also. ( it has the same snowball effect aspect that the als challenge had)

It is Participatory. Everyone can be challenged to do the video and everyone can share it.

It is Authentic. It challenges you to do push ups, and sponsor yourself. How many other challenges do you know that has you do push ups then donate for each push up you can do?

It is Relatable. Everyone knows how high college is and most people deeply appreciate people in the military.

It has a Kick. It has a hashtag ,people can watch it. It does not have a wikipedia page, yet but the Fallen Patriots have a Twitter page for the drop and give me 10 challenge.

It also has the Time aspect. Because there is no other viral trend or challenge going on right now that I know of. There is a lot going on in the world right now, but I do not believe it is anything everyone is talking about like crazy so right now would be the time for a mass viral challenge like the drop and give me 10 challenge to happen.

Sources:

It was actually kind of hard to find information on the #DropAndGiveMe10 challenge because apparently there is also a drop and give me 10 exercise challenge and information on that popped up a lot. So if you would like to do some more research into the #DropAndGiveMe10 challenge I would suggest always using the hashtag because that is where I had most of my luck finding information on the challenge. Most of the information in the post if from the Fallen Patriots website.

Link to the fallen patriots website: http://www.fallenpatriots.org/#home

Link to Fallen Patriots mission, history, and financial audits: http://www.fallenpatriots.org/who-we-are  

Link to #DropAndGiveMe10 page: http://www.dropandgiveme10.net/

Link to #DropAndGiveMe10 Twitter: https://twitter.com/dropandgiveme10

Link to more YouTube videos of the Challenge the first 7 are of the challenge: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=drop+and+give+me+10+challenge

100 Happy Days | Dmitry Golubnichy | TEDxZurich

This sensation brought us many terms that are in the norm now to the forefront. “The other 99 percent” and “The top 1 percent” and so on. Yes, I know that this started in 2011, but it really went crazy in 2014. Whenever you search viral sensations of 2014, occupy wall street pulls up.

It started as most things do, as a grassroots thing, by weirdly enough, Wall Street execs. While working for Adbusters magazine.

Okay, I can go into the hows and whys of the occupy wallstreet phenomenon, but I’m not going to. Everyone knows what it is. You either are for it or against it. I lovingly call the men of wall street, the “Crusty Old White Man’s Club” (that is trademarked btw 😉). Some people call it the old boys club, the glass ceiling, whatever. It is the fabric that has oppressed the minorities through the centuries. This movement focuses on the banks that ran the country into the ground and got us into the huge mess we are just finding a way out of. I have a feeling that with this president and all his cronies, we may find ourselves right back into that mess, since it was his type that got us in to the mess in the first place.

Occupy wall street, black lives matter and women wearing vaginas on their heads, they all have a deeper meaning. The status quo will not be held down any longer. Everyone has rights, men women, gay, straight, it doesn’t matter. We all as human beings have the right to just, be. That is the year 2017 and we are still arguing about racism, feminism and whether or not you can have both science AND religion is just ridiculously stupid.

I feel this has led to more things coming to light, via social media, wikileaks, what have you. What we are saying is that we do not want to be controlled by the banks and corporations anymore. They tell us what to eat, what to wear and what to listen to. We left an oppressive country a few centuries ago to get away from that. I think people tend to forget that. We left oppression and walked into the open arms of oppression we made for ourselves. The whole time believing whatever bullshit the one percent wanted us to swallow.

We are in the matrix. The matrix we allowed ourselves to be drawn into. The ad campaigns tell us we must be skinny or pretty to advance in life. Hell, our “President” has said many times that you have to be ten in his book. (Side note, never, ever do I want to be in any kind of book that caters to a man of his ilk. I’d die celibate and on the shelf first than to whore myself to the likes of him.) The magazines tell us we have to be rich or we will not be happy. The Church tells us we have to believe in whatever God they are peddling at the moment. The hypocrisy we live with on a daily basis is staggering. The hypocrisy we tell ourselves it is okay to live with is staggering. Why we are afraid to be who we are is a sad state of affairs. I get told a lot, mostly by insecure men, that I hate men. This is the dumbest account of feminism. Why must I hate men in wanting to be treated fairly? I love men. I love women. I love humans. I don’t understand the divisiveness in any of this.

Why do we have things like the viral sensations of occupy wall street or the ice bucket challenge? To remind ourselves of our human decency and the fact that they way things used to are not necessarily the way things should be. I think Billy Joel said it right, “The good old days weren’t always good and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems.” We have to raise awareness to the things that are right and good.

It is to show that we don’t have to be what they want us to be. I saw a meme a few years ago that always stuck with me. It said, “Don’t tell me to reach for the stars when there are footprints on the moon.” This is what occupy wall street and the such mean to me. I means I will not sit idly by and let myself feel inferior because someone else says I am not good enough. It means I will not sit by and try to be anorexic because that is what it means to be a ten. It means I will not slave to the corporate grind to make money just to survive.

I understand that all that I am saying is for a class, to get a degree, to make a living. However, the living I am making now is at a cost to my sanity and soul, therefore the compromise I make is to get a degree to do a career that I actually enjoy doing. Life is full of compromises, that is just the way it goes. I don’t want more because I am woman, I want more because I deserve it. Like any other human being. So bring on the occupy wall street, black lives matter, women for equality and all of the others, because as it says on the Statute of Liberty, Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" That is the New Colossus by Emma Lazurus. Not anywhere does it say anything about the one percent. In fact it can be argued, she is talking about the other 99 percent.

One of the newest viral videos making its way around the internet right now is from a Dr. Phil episode from last year featuring a down right awful 13 year old girl who thinks she is from the streets and can tell her mother what to do.  As a parent I could not imagine my kid treating me this way, it is just ridiculous.  On top of the way she treats her mom, the way she presents herself is atrocious. She says her “accent” comes from the streets, which to me sounds a bit ridiculous. However, what unfolds near the end of the video seems to be internet gold because just today alone I have seen at least 15 different friends on Facebook posting memes featuring this girl and her tag line “cash me ousside, howbow dah”. They range from romantic memes like “cash some feelings for me, howbow dah” to some military related ones like “When hadji keeps dropping mortars on your base…. Cash me ousside dah wire, howbow dah”.  It is quite ridiculous.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrtSOTGNqA8

Sharing

This video has been shared several thousand times as well as recreated into a meme that has been all over twitter recently.

Participate

Participation is simple, either you reshare the original video or you create a new meme.

Authentic

Her accent may not be authentic but the

Reach

Like I said before not only has the video been making its way through the social media realms, people have also been taking screenshots of the video and creating their own memes from it.

Kick

Why I think this video has viral SPARK

Holy Crap this video is insane!  Watch Betsy DeVos fumble through her series of questions at the Senate Confirmation hearing.  She is unfamiliar with topics that she should be well versed in.  This is not the leadership I want to see put in charge of something as important as our kid’s education.  Not only does she appear unqualified, but she lacks the very critical thinking skills that our public schools are failing to instill in students!  This is like letting the fox watch the chickens, how could this possibly end well!

Reasons This video meets the SPARK qualifications for a viral video according to @necsocialmedia

S:  Highly shareable.  I found this link through a friend’s Facebook feed, which then took me to the official Democratic Party Facebook page.  Scrolling through other social media platforms this video, or clips from the larger confirmation hearing, are currently littering the internet.  I even saw it on network television!  Because her answers are so evasive they make for great sound bytes, and the video catches your eye because it’s a familiar environment.

P: Participation.  The link is easily retweeted, reposted, sent directly, etc, but what what really makes it participatory is the call to action.   Individual citizens are actively asking us to sign a petition to block her nomination.  This is the type of direct participation that helps create a viral post and allows the consumer to feel like they have a voice and are contribution to a groundswell.

A. Authentic.  Yep, it’s the real deal.  That’s the senate confirmation chamber that we are all familiar with.  Those are the senators we recognize and voted for.  These are the tough questions being asked.  The authenticity is undeniable - covered by major, credible news outlets like PBS, CNN, AP, Reuters.  You name, it, this story has been verified as unequivocally credible.  There’s not almost zero room for questioning the validity of this story.

R Reach.  The sheer number of people sharing this story on personal social media platforms is remarkable.  The different type of news outlets - print news, television, radio, and online journalism all covering the confirmation means that it reaches a huge amount of people.

K Kick.  I think that the real reason this is going viral is because it involves our children.  In a country so divided over political issues, the future of our children is usually one area we are able to come together on.  Traditionally there is common ground to be found around this topic.  Who doesn’t want American kids to be the best educated in the world?  This video has kick because it offends everyone - republican, democrat, liberal, conservative, parents and non-parents, old, young.  One of the strengths of this country is an educated work force, and if we are to continue into the 21st century as the number one superpower we better have the skilled labor to maintain that status.  This woman does not seem to grasp the magnitude of her position and seems wholly unqualified.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB9IbaUOlL0

Why I think this video has viral spark.

Sharing-If you pay any attention to the hip hop rap world you heard about lil Wayne wanting to battle Eminem .Lil Wayne received so much backlash after this because viewers assumed he meant he could stand a chance against Eminem during a battle lil Wayne thought he was the best rapper alive.

Participate-Since there was already so much media attention spreading about lil Wayne saying he wanted to battle Eminem it was no surprise that viewer wanted to participate in spreading the word that there was not any beef going on between them.

Authentic- You can’t get more authentic than bringing somebody on stage during your concert with thousands of fan recording the moment on their devices.

Reach-Whether it’s adults that listened to Eminem when he first came out every kids that was all about lil Wayne now there are so many fans torn between the two.

https://twitter.com/vaughn_sadie/status/1023264560860618752

Above is a link showing some of the damages the lip challenge has had.

https://youtu.be/8_89glrHe0k

The link above shows a video from Inside Edition regarding the craze that is happening with this lip challenge. Many do not take it seriously, but it is in fact harmful. Many think it is funny, they do not recognize the real dangers

Here is a quote from a Kylie follower “Lol remember when everyone bruised their lips doing the kylie jenner lip challenge to entertain people on social media?0 replies1 retweet7 likes”

The challenge has died down, however not before the damage was done. Kylie Jenner’s life continues to thrive, she is as famous as ever, not once have I heard anything from her showing concern for these followers of hers that are permanently disfigured.

No doubt she has the money to enhance her looks, her lips, but her followers do not. So they are left with costly shortcuts and there seems to be no remorse, no sense of accountability, no sensitivity from Kylie Jenner.

This is yet another example of the dangers of social media. There are so many crazy challenges out there on social media and teens and tweens will do them just to be on social media. They are not thinking about long term effects, they often do not realize what they are until it is too late for them or someone else.

I think people who pose challenges should be more mindful of the consequences, people lives and health are at stake.