Joseph Kony

I was in Grand Cayman Island when the Joseph Kony video swept the web. Though I had wifi in the place I was staying, I did not have my computer with me. I only had my Blackberry phone. Thus, the speed and connection was not the greatest, so I let a few days go by before I realized how big this Joseph Kony video had become and took action to learn more about it.

(invisiblechildreninc, 2012)

Each night before I went to sleep, I would go on Facebook on my phone and check to see if I had any messages from anyone. I saw friends, family members, and even celebrities either posting the link to the video on YouTube or making some sort of comment about it or Joseph Kony in their wall posts. This went on for a few days. Finally, one night I decided to play the video on my phone. Though I had heard of the Invisible Children organization and already knew a bit about their work, I had never heard of this man before and wasn't sure what to expect from this almost 30-minute-long video.

I was completely moved and riveted by it all, especially the way in which the man who made the video, Jason Russell, chose to angle his pitch to the world. He used his own young son, Gavin, as a platform, stating that no person can control where they are born or what family they are born into. He also used it to highlight the fact that if his son were kidnapped by a "leader" like Kony here in America, it would be all over the papers and the greatest action would be taken to stop it, but because this is happening in Uganda and other parts of Africa, the action being taken is slim to none.

(http://juicymaxy.tumblr.com/ , 2012)

Russell is calling us all to action to make Kony famous so that people can know about the LRA and the terrible things they do to children and make these children do to others, even loved ones. If people know and show that they care, the U.S. government will continue the fight to find and arrest him. The date is April 20, 2012: the night when cities will be covered by his name and picture to the greatest extent possible by activists and others who are moved by this video.

(http://juicymaxy.tumblr.com/ , 2012)

 The wonders that social media can do in bringing awareness to issues that would otherwise go unnoticed around the world are amazing. As I type this post, almost 80 million people have viewed the official Kony 2012 video on YouTube, and the Invisible Children Facebook page has over 3 million likes. However, there have been opposing reactions and opinions about the actual effects this social media platform will have on the success of finding Kony. The above mentioned number of people have viewed the video, but how many of them will actually be moved to do something about it?? As a college senior who has a million-and-one things going on, I must be honest and say that I do not see myself actually attending the Cover the Night event in Baltimore or really taking any further action besides watching the video and perhaps engaging in conversation about it in class or with friends and family members. True, the campaign is a million times better off because of the ability to reach so many people around the world so fast, but not all people will be moved to action. The movement may not be as big as it seems, and that is the downside of social media. Sometimes the number of hits does not actually equal the number of those who are going to go out, spread the word, and be moved to action. Social media feeds the immediate gratification of this society we live in, and that is where the problem lies. Something else can so easily come along and take its place and this video can just fall into a long line of other videos that have swept the web. People in society today have a very short attention span for these kinds of things. Sadly but truly, only those who are sincerely dedicated to a cause will follow through.

Though this video swept Facebook, other social media sites, and the world last week, there has already been a documented decline in interest. As noted in this article from The Atlantic, The International Obsession With Kony is Already Ending, just one week after the video went viral, the world has lost interest. Online searches for Kony have dropped, as have mentions of him in the news.

Moreover, upon seeing the video, Africans reacted poorly to the campaign for its patronizing of their people and its glorification of white NGO workers. So, it hasn't been only good things that have come out of this campaign, and only time will tell whether those who were on board from their first viewing of the video will be present at their local Cover the Night event on April 20. Until then, the question of the campaign's longterm value will remain unanswered. New Media Success Story or Cautionary Tale

Another factor and breaking development as I write this post that could affect the campaign's success: the arrest of Russell. He was detained in San Diego on Thursday for intoxication, indecent exposure, and vandalizing cars. See the story at ABC.com here: Kony 2012 Activist Filmmaker Arrested. I will have to keep an eye on this development in the coming days...