*Update! The Kony 2012 video just became the most viral video in history with 100 million views in 6 days. Read more here: http://mashable.com/2012/03/12/kony-most-viral/
If you have ever doubted the power of social media to help change the world, then this blog post serves to change your opinion.
On Monday, March 5th, Invisible Children, a nonprofit organization that stands against the use of child soldiers in Africa, uploaded a moving and powerful video on the Lord’s Resistance Army Leader, Joseph Kony. The purpose of this video as stated by Invisible Children “aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.” Today, March 8th, the video now has nearly 37 million views, and counting…
I don’t want to give too much away, because the video is meant to be watched and not summarized. Invisible Children proves that with the power of young people, social media, and a need to help make a better world, a simple click of the button “share” on Facebook can assist in creating an absolute revolution against the number one worst war criminal in the world. In 2011, Invisible Children used the power of social media and the efforts of supporters world wide to make the problems in Africa known and it resulted in President Obama agreeing to send troops to Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony. The Kony 2012 campaign serves to demonstrate to the U.S. government that the people care, and if we do not show that we care, the mission in Uganda will be cancelled. Kony abducts children, forces boys to murder their parents, forces young girls into being sex slaves, teaches these children how to mutilate people, and worst of all, brainwashes them into thinking this is the correct way to live. Just this month so far, Kony as abducted 53 children. If 53 children were abducted in the U.S. in the last 8 days, the story would be front page news on every magazine and newspaper.
The video urges people to take make Joesph Kony known. Not because it will help America, and not because it will help any of us personally but because, as human beings, we can’t let one person destroy a country’s entire population of children. One part of the video I find most interesting is when the narrator of the video and Invisibile Children co-founder, Jason Russel, interviews his own son on the issue. To see this issue from an American child’s point of view puts things into such a simple perspective. Take a look for yourself and help spread the message!
