KONY 2012 (or, Why I Agree With Gladwell)

Biz Stone and Malcolm Gladwell both give valid reasons in their articles as to why and why not, respectively, big social movements can happen with the help of social media websites like Twitter and Facebook. Gladwell argues that social media is based on "weak ties" and therefore cannot provide the discipline, strategy, and identifiable leadership that large-scale movements need to actually cause changes. Stone says that such an assumption is "absurd" and that Twitter can unite people "in a common goal". Both writers make good points, but in the end, I have to side with Gladwell on this one.

Gladwell points out that quite possibly the biggest social movement of the last century - the sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement - happened without Twitter and Facebook and other social media sites. The four teenagers who started it all did it because they knew each other directly and related to each other, and were therefore motivated by each other. The event spread not by social media, but by good old-fashioned word of mouth. Gladwell says that such a movement would be impossible today, and I can't help but see where he's coming from.

Case in point: Kony 2012.

For all three of you who don't know about this "movement", Kony 2012 was created by Invisible Children to bring awareness to Joseph Kony, a war lord who used child soldiers. The original video, directed by Jason Russell, has over 80 million views on Youtube, and everyone was hyped about it. People wanted to donate the money and buy the bracelets and spread the word about "stopping Kony".

Even Ball State had its own Facebook page (which, I'll admit, I was a part of for a brief period of time).

However, the hype quickly fizzled. There was backlash about IC's funding and where it was going. A video of a nude Russell yelling in the streets went viral. I left the Facebook group because the constant arguing was getting annoying. And Cover the Night didn't get quite as much attention as people were hoping. (Sure, on campus there would be a sticker here, a poster there, but it was hardly "covered".) And of course, we haven't caught Kony.

What does this say about social media and social activism? Why did this get so popular, and then fade so quickly?

People want to be a part of history as it happens. I think that the people involved genuinely believed that this could lead to something amazing and beautiful and world-changing. They believed they were good people just by sharing a link and spending a few bucks. We want to believe that something like this is our generation's Civil Rights Movement or Vietnam protest. And then when it fades, we wait for the next big movement and jump on in.

You'd think that social media would be what unites people for a cause, but it doesn't. As Gladwell said, social media "makes it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have any impact." That's why Kony 2012, while popular, ultimately failed in its mission. We were aware, yes, but we didn't actually do anything else.

Gladwell would not be impressed.