I remember when I first heard this phrase, “STOP KONY 2012.” People were tweeting about it but I had no idea what they were talking about. One of my friends briefly described to me that Kony was the head of a LRA but I had no idea what that meant. The ignorant me just assumed that he was just some kind of dictator. I still had no idea what it was until I watched this video. Looking back, I’m embarrassed that I didn’t actively look into what Kony was about and why it was such a big deal. “Knowledge is power.” By being educated on the topic, we should use it to our advantage to help change the world for a better good.
When we look at the influence STOP KONY 2012 video has and how it reached a hundred million views within only six days, we can see that social media is more apart of our lives than we think. Social media has the power to be inspirational. It’s easy to think that any video can reach a hundred million views as long as they’re entertaining or embarrassing. But with this video to reach a hundred million views faster than ANY OTHER video in history, we can also see that a video that can educate people and get people involved. Social media is not only for us to communicate with each other, stay in contact, stay updated on current events, but it can help educate others and attempt to change the world. If you think about it, would this have been possible twenty years ago when social media did not exist? Probably not!
It’s amazing to think that by simply watching this video and interacting with social media, we are educating ourselves. We can make a difference. This video can change the way we see ourselves. We can help the people who need our help and we can spread the news by doing exactly what we’ve been doing–interacting on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Social media is used by all age groups. But the people who probably use it the most recreationally are probably the younger age group. This video can speak to the younger age group and have them REACT. It’s amazing that we can easily find videos on YouTube that can entertain us, make us laugh, share with our friends, but it’s even more amazing that a video can change our views on the world and want to make a difference.
I thought this video did an amazing job describing the topic in simple terms. This isn’t an easy topic to understand. I’m sure there is so much more to the story than what the author shows. But he explains it simply by describing Kony, what he does, the effects of what he’s done and what WE can do to attempt to stop him. He showed us through his video the passion and energy he has to change. He only shows his optimism and it is almost contagious. You want to be apart of this change that can change the world. I think my favorite part of this video is that he gives us a deadline. He says that the video expires on December 31, 2012. It gives the viewer the energy we need to want to make a difference and we almost want to jump on it right away and act on it. He makes a great point that in order for us (the people) to act and change what is going on, we have to be educated. I can agree with him that if people are uneducated on the topic, there is nothing that can be done. I was one of them! So by the power of social media, share with your friends, family, aquantances, etc what STOP KONY 2012 means. We have the power to do it and we have no reason to not.
Tags: STOP KONY 2012, Social Media, Change, Inspiration
beatricejho 