Invisible Children showcased Kony 2012 all over the world on Feb. 28, including in the Ferguson Center Theatre. Since then, the film about the African rebel group leader indicted for war crimes has been hard to escape on social media.
“The video opened my eyes to other issues around the world and how we are so blinded by everything outside of the United States that has nothing to do with us,” said Faith Merritt, a sophomore majoring in electrical and computer engineering. “When I watched the video, it broke my heart and bought me to tears.
“People can be so cruel. Not only can that happen overseas, but it can happen here in the United States with human trafficking.”
After watching, Merritt went on to share the video via Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, like millions of other viewers.
It wasn’t just the video that spread through social media networks – the video has inspired a wide range of critical responses, blog posts and events. Al Gilani, a freshman majoring in chemical and biological engineering, has coordinated “Cover the Night Tuscaloosa” through Facebook. The event, which Gilani said he planned impulsively after watching Kony 2012, has nearly 1,500 Tuscaloosa students and resident signed up to bring awareness and knowledge of Kony.
“As soon as I watched that video, I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ and it was just an impulse to do whatever I could,” Gilani said. “I felt [the event] would really spread the word.”
“Cover the Night Tuscaloosa” is scheduled for April 20 from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Gilani said student group APWONJO has contacted him about getting involved with the event. APWONJO, a student organization devoted to raising awareness about issues in Africa, has hosted and been a part of a number of Invisible Children-related film showings and events.
“Social networking has changed drastically over the past years, and the way it has grown has introduced a whole new market,” Merritt said. “Now, you can introduce problems, issues or entertainment with just one click. It’s amazing. The video spread the way it did because it caught many people’s eyes by just clicking the play button on their computer screen.”
“I’m going to say 99 percent of the people that know about the video found it off of Facebook,” Gilani said. “These days, social media is the only way that people will pay attention to anything. Most of the stuff that I pay attention to is on Facebook or Twitter. As human beings, we get overwhelmed, so we only pay attention to stuff that our friends are paying attention to, and when it’s on Facebook, it makes it a lot easier.”
Though there has been criticism of Kony 2012 and negative backlash, Gilani said he’s glad to have been informed on something he didn’t know about while staying neutral.
“I feel like we needed the video to know about what’s going on – not necessarily endorsing Invisible Children, but I am saying we needed that video to understand what was going on, because if it had never come, then we would not be talking about it today,” he said.
