The New Vote- KONY 2012

I had a thought today as I engaged in a KONY centered conversation with some friends. We were talking about why the movement was happening now and why we as American citizens should care. My friend asked why it mattered to have KONY posters and pictures all over Facebook and Pinterest and Instagram. She couldn't understand what purpose the social media made, after all, the point of the campaign is to call for a continuance of political support for a group of advisors to aid the local governments in Africa in finding and capturing Joseph Kony. At first I didn't have an answer for her. I couldn't say why it mattered, other than all the positive effects that come from a more unified public, but then it dawned on me.

A "Like" on a page is like a vote. When we "like" something, or we re-post something, or comment on something, we are voting for that thing. We as the public are saying, yes, I want this to happen. It is a form of activism. I saw this meme today on Facebook and thought it was rather clever, but also a little bit false. When we like a page, like Kony 2012 for example, we give our support and give a statistical representation of the popularity of that thing. This number is powerful to those higher up, it is a statistical way for our politicians to track what we are thinking and what we believe. Right now Kony 2012 has more than 44 thousand likes which is a huge number in such a short amount of time. To the crusty politicians who don't use "the Facebook," this number is extremely significant and could actually contribute to extended American support for the fight against Kony.

Regardless of whether this is a fight worth fighting or if America has any business getting involved, the American people have utilized social media to show their support for this particular cause. If anything, Kony 2012 has proven the effectiveness of social media and has shown in a much more broad and commercial sense what we can do with Facebook.