When Alexys Tantuco posted her thoughts on the USC Speak Your Mind Ice Bucket Challenge on TikTok, questioning how pouring ice spread mental health awareness, she never expected it to go viral. With 4 million views and 650,000 likes, Tantuco’s video offered a fresh perspective on the trend.
“A bunch of comments on my video were calling me the ‘fun police’ but they completely missed the point,” Tantuco said. “The trend isn’t just for fun; it’s meant to raise awareness about mental health.”
The University of South Carolina’s Mental Illness Needs Discussion club was founded by student Wade Jefferson after his close friend died by suicide. The organization decided to launch the #SpeakYourMIND campaign in March to remind people that they are not alone in their struggles with mental health. The initial rules of the challenge were to post a video of yourself doing the challenge, nominate friends to share the message, and donate/learn about the nonprofit Active Minds which hopes to transform mental health norms.
As the challenge gained more traction on Instagram and TikTok, the original meaning faded into the background. People found more interest in the “ice bucket” portion of the trend rather than the underlying cause of raising mental health awareness.
“People in my comments section were debating whether the trend was meant to raise awareness for ALS or mental health, showing that not everyone was educated on the trend,” Tantuco said. That is the true danger of performative activism.”
In 2014, three men who had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis started an Ice Bucket challenge that quickly turned into a global phenomenon. Over 17 million people participated in the challenge, helping raise $115 million for ALS research. Its massive success made it one of the most recognized social media movements of all time. As a result, many people conflated the two challenges, assuming that the #SpeakYourMind was promoting the same message, when in reality it was advocating for a completely different cause.
Despite the controversial responses to the challenge, some still believe that the #SpeakYourMind trend has both promoted conversation about mental health and fostered community in an engaging and impactful way.
With over $340,000 being raised for Active Minds and technology making it easier than ever to engage in new challenge, #SpeakYourMind became a trending hashtag plastered all over social media.
Sophomore Suraj Verma remembered seeing friends from Episcopal and Kinkaid doing the challenge. Within a day, it spread to his grade, and he eagerly waited to get nominated.
“The main draw of the ice bucket challenge was how quickly it became viral,” Verma said. “The best part about it was how everyone I knew was getting nominated.”
High-profile figures such as James Charles and Peyton Manning are part of the extensive list of participants, championing the trend to their millions of followers. Additionally, the influence of #SpeakYourMind extends internationally as Tantuco has friends in Singapore, China and Korea uploading their own videos.
Yet sophomore Fiona Bodmann believes that the trend only makes a real difference if people are actually conscious of the reason they are doing the challenge.
“If people don’t know why the challenge exists, there is no way the trend will be able to fulfill its mission,which is promoting mental health awareness,” Bodmann said.
In her post, Bodmann not only tagged the organization but included a screenshot of their vision for people to better understand its goals and potentially learn more about the cause.
Tantuco believes that if more people follow in Bodmann’s footsteps and go the extra mile by sharing extra resources and hotlines, the trend would be executed properly.
“It’s important to stay educated on social media trends before you participate in them.”
