The world experienced its newest YouTube phenomenon this past week. With just under 80 million views, Joseph Kony has become a trending topic worldwide. Also sitting in a top spot for world’s worst war criminal, this man’s face is finally finding the fame it deserves thanks to California-based organization Invisible Children’s Kony 2012 campaign.
Invisible Children’s 27-minute video shocked the world March 5 with its graphic images and unsettling information. For the first time in many peoples’ lives, the name Joseph Kony appeared on their Twitter feeds, Facebook timelines and Tumblr dashboards.
In one day, the world of social media was polluted with something other than the monotonous complaints of #whitegirlproblems, or ignorant trending topics like #whoispaulmcartney. For what seemed like half a second, the world set aside their #firstworldpains and focused on an issue bigger than themselves. For some, this was an eye opener to a global issue, for others, it was an opportunity to finally place Uganda on the map.
Within 24 hours, the Kony campaign took flight. Its goal was to raise awareness about the immoral tactics of Joseph Kony, a man who abducts children and forces them to “rape, mutilate and kill,” as stated on the website. The video’s intention was to educate people on what has been going on in Uganda for the past three decades, and with the help of social media, the enlightenment began.
But according to today’s society, no good deed is without ulterior motive, and as you can imagine, it didn’t take long for the cynics of the world to find fault in the campaign. Critics raved on the sneaky Hollywood tactics behind the video, all the while creaming over the thought of having something new to dissect and complain about.
Really?
Everyday I open the Twitter app on my iPhone and mindlessly scroll through the endless 140-character rants of my closest friends and favourite celebrities. And let me say, tweeters, you sure do complain a lot. Whether it be about homework, the weather, or the pile of dirty dishes in your kitchen sink, you maximize your word limit and fill the world with useless thoughts.
So by all means, complain about Kony 2012 too — I saw it coming. But just understand that your complaints are still a success to the Kony campaign. The use of social media to shed light on the Kony 2012 issue may be glamorous and full of Hollywood techniques, but hey, it’s working.
Whether you’ve thought about Kony for a day, an hour, or even a mere second, we’re better we were before and people should leave it at that.
One of the main goals was to raise awareness, get people out of their own heads for even just a second, and force them to think about something outside of their social bubble. As university students, we’re attending school to further our education. We take classes to learn, and to expand our minds with new information. So when a group like Invisible Children uses the only thing we respond to in order to teach us the world needs our help, why do we shut them down?
Here’s the thing: by using the World Wide Web and all of its possibilities, Kony 2012 is simply achieving what it set out to do. The video is asking us to make Kony known, not hop on a plane to Uganda ourselves and kill the man. All it’s asking is for you to use one of your 7,345 tweets and direct it towards an issue that focuses on something other than you for a change. All they’re asking is that we ponder, for a second, the information they’re providing. So whether your thoughts are proactive or pessimistic, I thank you, for helping this campaign.
I understand the complexity of this issue. There are many opinions and things to consider before anyone can make a decision on whether or not using social media for this particular case is right or wrong. However, people use not knowing as an excuse for not caring. Invisible Children acknowledged this and made knowing as easy as possible.
So stop complaining. Because in the end, whether you’re hating or appreciating, you’re still taking part in the trend that took the world by storm, #Kony2012.
