Kony 2012. Some of us may be too young to remember, while others may remember it well. This campaign was created to raise awareness about a serious issue taking place in another country. It all began with a video and, with the help of social media, it was able to become something even bigger and generate a buzz around the world.
The Kony 2012 video introduced a Ugandan war criminal named Joseph Kony. He was the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) which was largely focused on capturing young children from their families and turning them into soldiers and slaves. The emotional video went viral on YouTube and was shared on other social media platforms.
This viral marketing caused people from around the world to take action in support of the cause. They bought merchandise, held protests, and donated funds to the cause. They were able to make Kony “famous” and shine enough light on the issue that policymakers and government officials finally got involved to make a real change.
This was my first time ever seeing this video. I was only 10 or 11 when it originally came out, and I did not pay attention to that kind of information online at that age. Watching it for the first time in 2023 was truly eye-opening. To see this kind of treatment to children who were probably the same age I was or even younger was just heartbreaking and devastating to me. If this were ever to happen for even one day in the United States, it would be all over the news. But we are fortunate enough to know that this would likely not even get that far in the U.S.
As we continue to utilize social media for activism and bringing awareness to important movements to initiate social change, it is vital to keep Kony 2012 in mind. We saw how the sharing of videos can be instrumental in bringing problems to light and giving a voice to those who can’t speak for themselves, which in this case were the Ugandan children. Social media can amplify these actions even more now since it has updated so much. It can be the reason these problems don’t happen again.