What Teens Think About the Kony Campaign

Earlier this week, a 30 minute documentary film called "Kony 2012" took the internet by storm. Within hours, it was trending on Twitter and all over Facebook. The film is part of a social media humanitarian campaign initiated by Invisible Children, a nonprofit organization. The campaign's premise is to utilize social media to spread awareness about Joseph Kony, a central African warlord and his atrocious crimes against humanity. The goal is to capture Kony by the end of 2012.

As of Friday night, the video had been viewed 60 million times on YouTube, and 15 million times on Vimeo. Much of the success of the campaign is owed to teens and young adults all over the world, who have been instrumental in spreading awareness about Kony through social media outlets. According to data collected by YouTube, the video is most popular among teenage girls ages 13 to 17, young men ages 18 to 24, and teenage boys ages 13 to 17. Teens in my area have already organized Facebook events for the community to participate in the campaign, with over 4000 guests planning to attend.

Since teens are the backbone of this movement, I thought it would be interesting to see what teens at my school really think about the campaign. So, I surveyed various students at Beverly Hills High School, and here's what they have to say about the Kony campaign.

My questions for you: Do you agree with them? What do you think about the Kony campaign?

 

Comments

[harsh347]

06:08 PM on 03/12/2012

For starters: Invisible Children is actually a "not for profit" organization, not a nonprofit. There's a difference, so I wanted to clear that up. I think it's great that teens are finally aware of the terrible things that have been going on in Uganda for many years, but it's a little disheartening that they only care about human rights when it's trendy and only heard of Joseph Kony a week ago. It bothers me that many teens seem to think they're major activists after watching a 30-minute video. Additionally, I'm not sure Invisible Children's KONY 2012 campaign is the best method to stop Kony. Less than a third of IC's funding goes to directly helping Ugandans, and IC advocates funding the Ugandan government, which is guilty of atrocities as well. I commend IC for being able to get the word out so quickly to such a large group of people, but teens need to realize that there's a lot more to the issue than watching a 30-minute video and changing their profile pictures.

[iconico62]

10:40 AM on 03/13/2012

Puleeze. You expect teens to understand everything all at once? You expect them to delve into something they are enthusiastic about 110% from the word go? Have you ever gone through teen age years? If you have not, let me educate you a bit: part of the growing process is slowly understanding what is important and how you can be part of that. Teen agers are by nature not all that giving: a majority are still being weaned from self centeredness which is a product of mom and dad pretty much taking care of everythng. That they allow themselves to get involved in something deeper than mall shopping, something outside their comfort zone, something totally alien to them and their values, is of and by itself quite remarkable. If they think that they are activists, good for them. They will find out soon enough that being an activist entails a heck of a lot more than joining your friends in a trendy pursuit and required committment and understanding of the objectives. But that they have gotten involved is cause for hope that these kids have a heart after all that can travel the invisible miles to Africa and the long suffering children who are raped and trained as robotic killers. Great job, guys. And bless your hearts.

[Blastrocat]

10:15 AM on 03/12/2012

Excellent article. Nice to hear teens are concerned with something besides useless electronic devices and gaming.

[whitemale08]

12:08 AM on 03/12/2012

Teens should be suspicious of any "movement" or controversy portray by corporate mass-media.

[bondservant]

11:35 PM on 03/11/2012

There's always more to the story - make sure you know what it is
http://blackstarnews.com/news/135/ARTICLE/8007/2012-03-08.html

[Quis Custodiet]

08:09 AM on 03/12/2012

Ah, so you are an optimist. Well, it just so happens that high school aged teens have a steady connection with the educational stimulus. Therefore, they have incentives (frequently grade based) to think about the issues brought before them. With that said.

30% of said teens move onto, and graduate from a four year institution; a place where critical thinking and complex ideas are *usually* pre-requisites for making it to commencement. I say *usually* because there are a handful of majors which you can basically sleep through, or let your professor tell you what to think.

The other 70% just go into the workforce and at that point the critical thinking tends to stop. Those numbers don't look very good. The U.S. constituency in itself has always been behind the ball far as industrialized, and in time post industrialized nations go.

Far as where do I derive my belief? The fact that most teens and young adults care more about Jersey Shore than OWS.

[Ahoon]

07:42 AM on 03/12/2012

Seems to me that the exact same thing can be said about todays adults !

[Quis Custodiet]

08:24 AM on 03/12/2012

You won't see me sending my money blindly to any charity or non-profit because of the fuzzy feelings one of their advertisements gave me. Then again, I like to remain educated about these things before charging in. Whether or not many adults do the same is of no concern to me. If they indeed are easy to influence, then that is good for me.

[Joshua Philip]

04:35 PM on 03/11/2012

This is another internet fad that will wear off in time. I personally hope that Kony gets caught so the unfair suffering of his victims will cease. But, how does everyone suppose we stop him? Send our troops over there? Would you be willing to be drafted and sent to Africa to fight him? I wouldn't, and my guess is most people supporting this cause wouldn't either.

[Randy Cullar]

11:47 PM on 03/11/2012

Seal Team Six !

[Joshua Philip]

11:42 AM on 03/12/2012

That's easy to say when you're not in Seal Team Six. If I was a soldier, I'd only want to be deployed for a cause that was directly affecting our national security. Sending troops for any other reason is unconstitutional and a misuse of our them. We have no business over there. Kony is Uganda's (or whatever country's he's residing in currently) problem. If they want some strategic advice, we can give them that. But, we have no business starting a war over there. We have enough problems at home we need to deal with before we worry about other people's problems.

[shotgunjohnny]

01:42 PM on 03/12/2012

We already have 100 special ops forces hunting Kony in Uganda with the assistance and permission of the Uganda government. That seems to me the right approach. Yet another limited and narrow military engagement authorized by our President, in this case with the support of the sovereign government of Uganda, to take car of a nasty bad guy. It seems to me this approach should be encouraged and supported.

It would seem to me that it would be in your interest to be better informed.

[Joshua Philip]

02:14 PM on 03/12/2012

I already know about the 100 advisors sent over there in October, so I am informed. I am also informed that the Constitution does not allow undeclared wars. So, our troops should never be deployed anywhere unless we've declared war, and they should only be used for national security.