In 2012, an organization named Invisible Children received international attention due to a YouTube video launched and became the fastest spreading video of all time. The video was called Kony 2012, and it was a video to raise awareness of Joseph Kony and his LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army). Participatory Culture was a big factor in the spreading and raising awareness of the video, because people would participate and share the video via social media extensions such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Society was active in bringing awareness to this video every time they decided to repost and share the video so others would see. Also you could buy packages that would send bracelets and posters to share more awareness.

The Kony 2012 video is an example of how the internet affects many aspects of our lives including political, economic, and socio-cultural factors. The video raised awareness to government officials and internationally brought people together for a simple cause and supported as one community. All cultures and society joined for one reason, and that was to help end Kony’s power and the war. Thanks to the new media era, one can communicate ideas and messages faster than ever, as this video was an example of that, and can change living factors within an area quite quickly.

Of course, with new ideas and topics comes criticism. A lot of people heard rumors about Invisible Children keeping most of the money they raised to help those in Africa, whether or not these rumors are true I’m not sure. Also, a lot of people believe this video was just an overnight fame, meaning that it was a popular topic at one point but very quickly people forgot about it and didn’t seem to help anymore. While I agree that the video had a huge factor in helping taking Kony down and raising awareness to Africa, I believe that the internet does have its fad hits. For example the ALS ice bucket awareness video,  people all over Facebook were doing the ice bucket challenge and donating money to organizations but after a while people forgot about it.

Although the new media era allows us to share information faster than ever before thanks to technology, it doesn’t mean that everyone is as active to issues as they should be. It just means people are more informed or educated, if that, about certain issues but some people show forms of ‘slactivism’ meaning they just share the post or join an online petition without actually performing any action. I myself shows my ‘slactivism’ by just watching the video and not even sharing it or donating towards the cause.