SMS Challenge 12-13-14

The SMS Challenge 12/13/14

The Challenge

SMS stands for Social Media Silence, your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to pledge to log out of, and turn off your Social Media, and all other apps, for 24 hours, and just “be wherever you are.”  Make a one-day commitment, from 8am on December 13^th, to 8am the next day, not to check-in, crush, spin, tile, update, ping, refresh, or post.  We live in a world where the things we own, end up owning us, none so much as our digital lives.  Replace your check-ins with conversations, eye contact, napping, driving, walking, anything that involves being fully present in the moment and place, and with the people around you.

The Cause

I am a High School Teacher in Central Falls RI.  I work with a very special group of young people in a multiple pathways program called Guide 2 Success.  My students have not found success in the traditional academic process for a variety of reasons, but each one is brilliant, talented, and remarkable.  We have committed to a variety of community service projects as part of the graduation requirement.  This is mine.  Some of the projects the students have designed have associated costs (transportation, materials, expert mentors, etc).  All funds raised will go directly toward the completion of these projects, which must by definition benefit others. 

The Budget

$15,000 funds every student project completely

$150,000 funds every project plus paid internships post-graduation

$1,5000,000 funds facility development to ensure future success of MP students

$15,000,000 funds new school facilities for every student in Central Falls

There are about 320 million people in the United States, if 2.5% participate, imagine the change we can make in a community.

Your Pledge

By agreeing to the SMS challenge, you are agreeing to click on the link below, and pledge just $2.00.  With your pledge, comes the promise that you will maintain Social Media Silence for a period of 24 hours, from 8 am December 13, 21014, through 8 am the following morning.  If you break your vow, you will click the link again and pay the $20 “I broke my promise” penalty.  You also need to recruit everyone you know to join in. 

My Hope

Social Media can be a wonderful thing, in connects people all over the world in meaningful ways, and makes it possible to change the world in amazing ways.  It can also be dangerous, short attention spans, missing human connection, driving while texting, affect us all.  I hope that for just one day, people can use this challenge as a way to reconnect on a personal level and think about all the ways Social Media affects their lives.