In today’s age, is generating awareness of an issue enough to create social change? This question is key in considering the impact of Kony 2012 – the half-hour documentary video that became the most viral online campaign of all time in 2012. With the purpose of bringing Joseph Kony, leader of the Ugandan rebel group, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), to justice for the abductions of thousands of African children into forced military service and sexual slavery, Kony 2012 quickly became an important cause for the world to latch onto.
A major focus of this campaign was on using social media outlets – especially Facebook – to generate attention towards Kony’s crimes against humanity. However, this widespread “sharing” that occurred through social media became one of the most notable cases of ‘slacktivism’ – where one displays a surface-level interest in a cause through simple acts such as sharing an online post or signing a petition. Social media may have proved an effective tool for Kony 2012, but its lack of transferability into real world actions was a significant weakness. For example, the video publicized ‘April 20th, 2012’ to be the campaign’s largest night of orchestrated postering, in which massive turnouts of supporters in cities were anticipated. The result was an absence of activists – but this wasn’t a new or surprising occurrence. It isn’t uncommon for people to choose to remain in the comfort of their own homes – most of us wouldn’t disrupt our daily routines unless there was some kind of benefit for ourselves. Although many users who shared the Kony 2012 video likely had genuine interest in it, they simultaneously benefited from the positive message they were identifying with. Social media provided an easy access to this incentive, while going out on the streets required substantially more effort, and therefore didn’t appeal to most people.
The fact that social media is treated as a way to ‘contribute’ to a cause can also be harmful, despite its ability to engage wider audiences. People quickly forgot about Kony 2012 – yet the issues of child enslavement in Africa still persist. With the fast click of a ‘share’ button, it was easy for users to believe they had helped, and it created the illusion that their contribution was sufficient. Social media has magnified the expectations of contributing to social change, which are often limited to these small actions. Kony 2012’s use of social media to gain worldwide attention has also been mirrored in other recent campaigns, such as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. While these campaigns may in fact be creating awareness, it’s important for users to acknowledge the small scale of their actions, in order to realize the need for larger actions to take place.