Around this time a few years ago, it was common to see videos of friends on social media having a bucket of icy water thrown on them. Known as the “ice bucket challenge”, it was created as a way to raise money for the medical condition ALS. But now, there’s a new challenge – and this time, no water is involved.
What is it? Well, think of a fruit that you’d never normally sink your teeth into. Perhaps you’ve got it: a lemon. While we enjoy using lemons to add flavor to dishes, very few of us would actually eat one as we’d eat an apple or an orange.
But the horrible taste is the precise reason the “lemon face challenge” is taking off. Participants bite into a lemon, taking a selfie as they do it before posting the photo online. The fun is all about the expression people make as all that citric acid hits their taste buds. Every expression seems to say, “This is worse than freezing water.”
The serious side to this trend is the good cause it’s all in aid of. The challenge aims to raise awareness of a rare brain cancer that affects young children. It was started by Aubreigh Nicholas, an 11-year-old US kid. She was diagnosed with this rare brain cancer herself in September 2017, but has since raised almost $50,000 (315,000 yuan) to cover her medical expenses thanks to the challenge.
这一流行趋势也有其严肃的一面，那便是支持慈善事业。挑战旨在唤起人们对一种罕见的幼儿脑癌的关注。该挑战由11岁的美国女孩Aubreigh Nicholas 发起。2017年9月，她被诊断出患有这种罕见脑癌，但多亏了这一挑战，她筹得了将近5万美元（约合人民币31.5万元）用以支付医疗费用。
Obviously, if a challenge is going to raise publicity and contributions from people, it has to be something interesting and original. And it needs to be something that many people can take part in.
很显然，如果一项挑战想要引起公众注意并获得筹款，就一定要独特且有趣，并且能够让许多人参与其中。
In the pre-internet days, it was almost impossible to share your message about raising money for charity with the world. But today, when so many of us have access to social media, a well-thought-out idea can reach and involve millions of people from all over the planet.
That was why the ice bucket challenge took off in 2014, and it explains why so many people are now sharing their lemon faces with a laughing global online population.
There are a lot of stories about the downside of social media these days. The charity challenges, however, show how online culture can unite the world and bring help to the people who most need it.
