Having had several clients contact me to ask my view of the
video and whether it would be appropriate to support within a workplace, I had taken
the time to watch the video and had my team do quite a bit of reading up on #KONY2012.
Out of devilish curiosity, pretending I was clueless, I
asked the store’s clerk what they knew of #KONY2012 and why the sign was there.
The clerk then proceeded to tell me: “Oh my manager put that
sign up. It’s this thing on Facebook and Twitter, like this YouTube video. It’s
about this guy, Joseph Kony (The bold represents how they said his name with distinction as to be
sure that is what I remember). He’s from Africa, and he kidnaps kids and
makes them kill their parents and do all this awful stuff. And these guys who
made the video want Obama to send troops to Africa to stop him or something
like that.”
“Have you watched the video?” I asked.
“I watched part of it,” the clerk replied, “but it was too
sad once they started showing pictures of what happened to the kids. If I want
to see stuff like that, I’ll watch a real movie.”
I then politely thanked them for filling me in, and that I
would have to go home and watch the video.
Jacob shared his experiences of witnessing his brother’s execution. With no hesitation he explained the details of the situations that he and countless others had to endure in order to survive. Any human being cannot deny the emotional impact that comes from hearing this young man’s life, first hand.
The film goes on to describe Invisible Children Inc.’s plan
to “#StopKony”, which boils down to making as many people aware of his crimes and
encouraging as many people as possible to speak out. Thus, the more people that
speak out, the more likely it will be that North American law makers will maintain
their action against Joseph Kony and the LRA. Invisible Children Inc. has a
very distinctive and plausibly actionable request of the public: “Make Joseph
Kony famous.“
The short film was released on YouTube, and launched into
the social media universe less than a month ago. Its view count has reached
over 80 million on YouTube alone. If you know nothing about the situation in Uganda, and the
current status of the LRA, the film is enlightening, empowering, horrifying,
dramatic, and utilizes sincere emotion. Bottom line, it is very well made film
in regards to promoting social justice with a built-in understanding of its marketing
and viral capabilities.
So with many things that muster the attention of millions,
comes the questions of the “who/what/why/how’d they do it?”
As the video went viral, word began to swiftly spread about
the various views of Invisible Children Inc., their financial practices, their
political allies and their polarization of the situation in Uganda that is rooted
at the film’s core. The Ugandan government has even released a counter video to
#KONY2012.
I’ll leave it to you to decide if you trust Invisible
Children Inc and support the cause of #KONY2012.
What I do ask of you is this: do your research. No one can
do this research for you, in its entirety. Social media is a juggernaut of content
creation and amplification. With its direct ability to tap into human instinct
and emotion, we are left with extreme potentials to empower, as well as to
mislead.
Any number of false celebrity death notices passed around Twitter
indicates that headlines travel first, and facts of the matter travel second. When
it comes to information that specifically interplays with our emotions – and
frequently this is diversity-driven content – we are generally led to react. If
we are happy, we smile and we laugh. If we are sad, we pout and we cry. If we
feel empowered, we step up and we speak out.
With a film so touching, so sensitively driven as #Kony2012, it really wasn’t surprising to see it in the Facebook timelines of countless friends and colleagues within its first week. Then all of the sudden, you slowly watched, as many people began to remove the video one by one from their feeds, and delete any praise they may have offered.
It’s within that time frame from the drop to the back pedal, where severe damage from misinformation can be done. Damage that includes the extension of false or dulled facts; false education in my mind is criminal. The damage that comes from potentially offending those with close ties to the topic at hand is very powerful and very real.
We must – as parents, educators, leaders, employers,
colleagues and friends – highlight the importance of digging a little deeper
before we press send. Similar to thinking twice before posting your own
personal ideology via the twitter-verse, what you post carries a far greater impact
than what I believe our society has even begun to comprehend.
Watching this play out, one thing is crystal clear: People,
by the masses, are finding their voice. Perhaps it’s the anonymous aspect of
the internet, and not having to say things while looking into one another’s
eyes. But humanity seems to want to speak out, and humanity has found its
microphone: social media.
Social media has created a world of passive activists. A
passive activist is a person that will gladly speak up for a cause they believe
in, but at their convenience. Life doesn’t leave everyone the opportunity to go
to rallies, travel to Washington or Ottawa to march, or write a brilliant
thesis dedicated to social justice. However, social media has offered us the
accessible opportunity “to march” from our iPads, while still in our PJs, via all
the very simple acts of sharing, re-tweeting, +1’ing, and now pinning.
Leading people to awareness is wonderful. The more people
who begin to care about the situations and lives of others, the more blissful
our planet can remain and further become. We definitely can include activism
more actively in our everyday lives now thanks to social media, and I stand by
that as being a very good thing. So long as it’s rooted in truth, dignity and
complete understanding.
When something like #KONY2012 hits the social web and we
feel emotional, it’s easy to press that “share” button. It’s so easy to re-tweet
with as many hash tags as possible to feel as if you are doing your part and
spreading the word.
“This made me feel like a good person. I want others to feel
this way. Why shouldn’t I send this to people to make them feel like good
people too?”
While fast action is certainly a necessity at times, as
social media users we should try to fully understand the situations before we
engage in them. Even by just re-sharing a video, you are making a large
statement about yourself: “I believe in this.” Unless you state them, there are
no “qualifiers”. When you post the #KONY2012 video, and make no reference to
your feelings about its makers or their critics, you are stating that you
support the cause and its organizational creators.
This is 100% acceptable if you have taken the time to define
for yourself a clear understanding of the video, the content, and its origins.
Parting HR Thought:
If you take the time to post any political or socially significant
signage on your business property inform your employees in full detail as to
what they and your organization are now representing.
“Courage
is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit
down and listen.”
-Winston Churchill
-Winston Churchill
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