SOCIETY WITHIN KONY 2012
    
    A Viral video, directed by Jason Russell,  has been released recently. With almost one hundred million views, this thirty minute short film has millions of people stunned through social networking sites, such as, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter,  and so on... Russell emphasizes the experiences that the kids in Uganda, Africa have suffered from by the power of Joseph Kony, one of the most wanted criminals of the world. His intentions are clear as told, he abducts children, boys and girls, uses them for sexual intentions, recruits them for his army, and forces them to kill their families.

     KONY 2012 is a non-profit open organization, made by INVISIBLE CHILDREN. The purpose of the video is to make Kony, not infamous, but as famous as possible in the world. With this at hand, those who are willing to contribute themselves are to donate money towards this normative organization, to help support the movement, and advertise his name all over major cities. The idea is that if the government realizes that America has a lot of supporters for the suffering kids in Africa, they will most likely affiliate themselves with more international affairs.

     This organization in society has its ups and downs. Obviously, with a high amount of supporters through social networking, this group has a high cohesion. Their purpose is shared to fight for the freedom of these African children by taking the first big step in informing the Government of this affair. Thus, hoping for United States military to be sent to Uganda, and finding Joseph Kony.

     I believe we the people of society play our role to be a more responsible about international affairs, and yet most people in society cannot play their role as an American. Most American teenagers probably are more concerned about Kony 2012 (not saying they shouldn't) more than they are concerned about affairs within the United States itself, such as, the huge debt we owe to china. It is our responsibility to understand the world before we approach it.

     The three stages of the Looking-glass self defined by Charles Horton Cooley, explains a lot how people construct themselves to support the popularity of Kony. Society basically breaks down by how we assume the majority is in favor of. What I am trying to say is: we watched a 30 minute video, all of a sudden were all concerned about Africa? Why weren't we concerned when Kony developed power in the beginning? By fitting into an organization, we as individuals feel accepted into society itself, therefore, we affiliate ourselves to bigger and larger groups to feel as the majority of society.

     Just last week, as I got into the 1 train going downtown, I simply took a seat in an empty row. I wondered why no one was sitting in the row, when the entire train was almost full. I looked around to find everyone looking in my direction, which was almost the most akward thing that has happened to me. I soon found out there was an abandoned black bag, filled through every space inside of it, just right under my seat. Most of the people were nervous, they simply assumed it was a threat of some sort. Soon, someone alerted the authorites about the bag, to finally found out it was a huge sweater stuffed inside.

     As I got off the train to catch the ferry, I was astonished to find out how many people were relieved. I began to think sociologically, how these people develop these ideas to assume the aboslute worst, but its quite obvious that terrorist attacks threaten our lives so much, that we need the ability to identify whats a threat or not. We are shaped by the actions another subculture does to us.

    From the first day of class, I began to think differently about the society around me. I feel I can almost get a clear picture of why people should assume things like a terrorist attack on the one train going towards the ferry, and why people don't assume and just keep reading their newspaper. Almost like assuming a glass being half full or half empty.

A little about myself...

My name is Gabriel, I'm 18 years old, and an only child. I am a first year college student, studying engineering. I'm a down to Earth guy, I enjoy doing and learning new things for experience. Photography, motocross, and skating is the hobbies I live for. I work in McDonalds, and I'm not afraid to admit it, I make minimum wage, but at least I make money. My life goal is to become an airline pilot. My influence is my father who was once a cargo pilot, and had lost his job due to the events in 9/11.