Community Corner

Poll: Does 'Slacktivism' Surrounding Kony Work?

'I don't even know if my heart will be there in a month' - student Nathan Warfel.

There’s a new term floating around associated with the viral video regarding Joseph Kony, the Ugandan rebel leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Slacktivism.

The video depicts what critics say is his notorious past of forcing young boys to be soldiers and girls into sexual slavery, and it has garnered more than 70 million views on YouTube.

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The video’s spread on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks is, by definition, “slacktivism,” according to a post on Mashable, a social media news blog.

“These sharers and tweeters are slacktivists,” posted writer Zoe Fox. “They've expressed their support for a cause through an action that doesn't directly impact the organization or cause.”

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Howard Community College student Nathan Warfel, to “Blanket the Night” with posters about Kony, said, “It might be 'slacktivism' … but just putting the posters up [in a month] shows that we still do care.”

He admits that his attention to Kony, though intense at the moment, might be fleeting.

“I don’t even know if my heart will be there in a month,” he said.

American University Professor of Public Communication Leonard Steinhorn said in an interview with Patch that viral videos, like the one on Kony, incite people to “pass it along.”

“It doesn’t mean they are going to go out and do much more than that,” said Steinhorn, whose specialties include American politics and the Baby Boom generation, known for its activist sensibilities. 

“Activism is the conscious, active involvement in an organization where you are giving your time and energy,” he said.

Of course, modern slacktivism isn’t a completely new phenomenon. 

Remember the 1960s peace protests?

Steinhorn points out that the millions of people who showed up at Vietnam War protests weren’t necessarily all activists.

“There were a lot of people who went to the peace marches because they cared, but it also showed what their beliefs and identity were,” he said.

As for Kony?

Uganda officials are now saying—after the spread of the Kony video—they would catch Joseph Kony “dead or alive,” according to the Daily Record.

Weigh in below: Does ‘slacktivism,’ or the sharing of socially conscious information on Facebook and Twitter, do any good?


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