I am in no way a cynic of the extraordinary success of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. According to the ALS Association website, they have received $88.9 million in donations for the cause. That is great. I get it, I really do. I am more concerned about the social implications occurring as a result of the extreme amount of influence social media has in our lives. It is time to think critically about the repercussions arising from the implementation and success of this wildly popular phenomenon.

Take for example, the situation occurring in Ferguson, Missouri. If I walked up to a randomly selected student on the Quad and asked if they could tell me the basics of Ferguson or who Mike Brown was, I am sure that they would not have a clue what I was talking about. Now, if I asked the same student if they had heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge, they would instantly recognize the topic.

As a public relations major, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has done amazing work to raise awareness for the disease, I give it that, but when all I see on my Facebook newsfeed are people dumping cold water on themselves, that is when I need to take a step back and reevaluate the role of social media in my life. Why is it that I only have two or three Facebook friends posting about Ferguson, Missouri, out of the thousand or so who inhabit my friends list? Why am I even relying on Facebook to give me my news anyway?

You see, many people my age are not getting their news from a newspaper; they do not even spend a few minutes watching news networks, but they are constantly on their social media. This is where we get our news and where we share the news we think is worthy of sharing. In my opinion, this is a problem.

We should not solely entrust our Facebook friends to give us the news that is truly important. We should actively seek and be engaged in the world around us; to notice the ?problems and seek the ways in which they can be solved. We should be individually ensuring that we are up-to-date on everything that revolves around us.

But we don’t.

We look for the easy way out. We like for others to determine what news we should focus on, what news we should share on our social media and what issue we should dump ice water on ourselves for. This not only restricts us to the news that others think is important but we are ultimately limiting ourselves to just one issue or to one side of the story. Social media has a lot of power in shaping our individual views and a lot of control in what news we are made aware of.

What does this say about our generation? That it takes an entire ?campaign to get people to pay ?attention to issues that are ?important? Is our generation so uninvolved in the news that the only way to bring awareness to certain topics is to launch a unique campaign that will draw us away from the other uninspiring things that hold ?our attention?

I know that sometimes we need to take a break from all of the pain and heartache in the world, to watch our family, friends and celebrities dump icy water on themselves, but if you want to advocate for a worthy cause, don’t just pick one; bring awareness to many. To do this, we need to determine what we individually think is important news or an important cause and share it with our social media networks instead of ?sharing what someone tells us is important.

It is your social media, use it however you like, but you have to understand that whatever you post contributes to the shaping of minds and the forming of opinions far greater than we could ever imagine.

Vel Lewis is a junior majoring in public relations and political science. Her columns run biweekly on Wednesday.