OK so here’s the thing. This Kony 2012 viral video which has received 43,354,020 views in the last 3 days is defining viral and showing how we can use social media to change the world. My daughter passed this on to me two days ago, but it took me that long before I watched. Don’t delay as long as I did.
Think about it for a minute. This is the first time in history that so many of the world’s population can actually communicate to each other. One 7th of the world’s population are on social media. Almost one billion of us are on Facebook. That is a huge change in the way humanity can interact and with that comes the opportunity for us to change things. We don’t have to wait, we don’t have to stand by, we don’t have to trust in government, we can take action through awareness. Maybe its a small action or a simple posting of a link; but it’s not so much the action as the awareness that has developed and is growing in power, that is becoming significant.
The Egyptian revolutionaries cited Facebook as significantly helping their revolution. They called it the Facebook revolution. That’s no small thing. We are at a tremendously captivating time in our evolution where the whole planet can get the same message…how truly amazing that is. Way to go Mark Zukerburg.
Check out the Invisible Children organization. I encourage you to watch this video both as humanitarian response and also from the perspective of the power of social media. Now that I am digging into this I find that there is some blow back happening about this with people posting complaints about IC or worrying about foreign intervention, or wanting IC to spend more money on building schools instead of making movies, or they distrust the charity, but its all opinions. Here’s Kony 2012′s response to these criticisms so I don’t have to repeat them.
I have reviewed IC’s financial statements, and reviewed Charity Navigator’s assessment of IC and as a seasoned non-profit executive I see nothing amiss in their accounts and am impressed that their administration is about 16%. They also get a favorable rating from Charity Navigator as well.
And while some people are being critical, they are not getting the point. This is about the people of the world (mostly young ones it looks like) trying to get justice and solve a terrible wrong. If this works just imagine what we can start to do…
Kony 2012′s goal is simple – to raise awareness about Joseph Kony, keep him in the news and arrest him. They use the film and the props and the movement to raise the awareness so that governments will act and do the right thing as opposed to just acting as they usually do from a geopolitical or financial interest sake. The people are demanding it. That’s what this is about, the people taking an initiative to get the world’s worst criminal captured. It isn’t about solving all of Africa’s problems or America’s problems or stopping the world’s traffic in children or slaves or stopping the slaughter of dolphins. It is about the power of social media and the small actions we can take as a united global citizenry to affect positive change.
Another thing to note is the film has a very high production value and that’s not an inexpensive process, but I would bet this video wouldn’t be going as viral as it is if it was shot with an iPhone and a web cam.
Please watch the video and comment. I would love to hear your thoughts about an interesting moment in history.
Photo Credits
Thumbnail & Feature Image Are Screen Captures From The Video
Did you enjoy this article?
Please let the author know by leaving them a comment below!
And, subscribe to our free weekly digest!
Simply add your email below. A confirmation email will be sent to you.
Recent Christopher Holt Articles:
- Pregnant Pause - A Book By Chris Holt
- Is Suicide a Dirty Word? World Suicide Prevention Day is September 10th
- Kony 2012
- A Year of Sitting - A Book By Chris Holt
- Should The Doomsayer (a.k.a. Harold Camping) Be Shut Down?
Chris:
My daughter also brought this to my attention a couple of days ago.
I agree completely with you about the criticisms that have been raised and that those who are raising these criticisms are missing some of the key points of the campaign and the broader issue of the revolution that social media is bringing.
It is phenomenal that there have been 45 million plus views of the video. That alone makes the campaign to make people aware of who Joseph Kony is and what he is responsible for a success. This guy is one of the worst and too few of us knew the extent of his crimes and what he was getting away with. In politics it is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease and this kind of publicity will keep the pressure on the US to keep their resources applied to capturing Kony.
We can’t all travel to Africa and elsewhere to work on projects and we can’t all contribute money to the multitude of good causes that are out there. But this has allowed us to harness a little contribution from a whole lot of people to accomplish a very specific objective. Well done!
Thanks Kit. I know you have done a lot to promote democracy around the world through your work and I think it might seem like a long hard road, maybe, just maybe a small corner is being turned by these types of actions.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. if you want to know what two people living on a sailboat think about this video…http://blog.terradagua.com/2012/03/kony/
Yes, sometimes just feeling the sand and breathing the air reminds us we are all here together.
Hi Chris, I to watched this for the first time last night ….for two days Face Book friends have been posting this video…the common thread… has been the fact that my friends children have been the ones to bring it to their attention. Children saving children….where have all the adults been?
Thanks for posting this… it’s good
Yes, seems like youth are providing some hope these days. It’s nice to see how sometimes seeing things as black and white can be powerful….forget the shades of grey and just go after what’s right
Chris – Thanks for taking the time to post and comment on the Kony2012 video. I was blown away by it and I have since been blown away by the criticisms too.
Some of the backlash can be expected and must be dismissed (that the movie is too slick and expensively produced, and that it is simplistic in its explanation of a difficult problem, and finally that is it focused too heavily on the producer as “hero”). For a video to go viral, it needs a “story” with a human element and a hero, with a simple message of action, and compelling visuals. So I see these complaints as petty. In fact, I’m in awe that they managed to get a 30 minute video to go viral — it must be the longest video to ever go viral. A feat in and of itself.
However, some of the other criticisms about the call for action actually being potentially dangerous to the civilians in the area, to the notion that Kony’s army is now practically non-existent … these are issues that I simply don’t know enough about.
In sum though, I think that the academics who are weighing in and slamming the video the hardest are ignoring the fact that before this video existed, most of those watching did not know of Kony at all. As a result, the video has already achieved its aim of “making Kony famous.”
p.s. for other readers, I found this play-by-play extremely well done if you’d like to look into the controversy a bit more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2012/mar/08/kony-2012-what-s-the-story?fb=native
Thanks Julie. The critics all seem to miss the point. I for one don’t remember the dude’s name who narrated the movie, but I do remember Joseph Kony and in fact it brought back some memories of this issue from a few years ago.
Humanity is still producing some trolls. Thanks for exposing this one.May his days be numbered.
Exactly. Thanks for commenting