Pause

This is a 'rest' week in my training, meaning that my long run Sunday was only 7 miles and I get an extra day off. In light of that, this post, at least as I begin, is off topic.

Last week @ Journey, our weekly gathering for high school students, we finished up a 3 week series on media choices. Based on a curriculum by Walt Mueller we called it 3D and encouraged students (and ourselves) to discover what media contains, discern what it is actually trying to communicate and then make a decision regarding its value. One main thrust was to not simply be passive consumers, but informed (wise), critical thinkers.

How ironic that as we were concluding the series, the Kony2012 video went viral, attracting over 70 million views to date. I was introduced to it by a friend and within a very short amount of time shared it myself on Facebook and saw that several of our students had as well. At least one of my fellow staff members had tweeted, shared it on Facebook and his blog.

The Invisible Children's video has a simple message: Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army leader, Joseph Kony, is a 'bad guy,' and the world (read, United States) must do something to bring him to justice. It cites a long list of atrocities committed by Kony and the LRA since the 1990's, including the capturing of thousands of children to serve as soldiers in their fight against the Ugandan government.

The problem is, the situation is not so simple. Crimes have been committed on both sides. The film advocates perpetuating the never ending cycle of violence that this planet seems to somehow will stop the violence. It omits the peace talks that led to a temporary LRA departure from Northern Uganda - they returned after a failed U.S. military intervention in December 2008.

There are many more criticisms of the film that you can easily find.

My point?

1) The power of social media to raise awareness is just astounding. Maybe more on that some other time.

2) It would be way easy for us to be like the people in WallE - kicked back in our chairs, stuffing ourselves, glued to our screens. Information passing through our eyes and ears and out our noses and rear ends, with little need to act on what we learn.

3) This is a crystal clear example of the importance of the study we just did at Journey. It is so easy for us, with our fascination with well done media to simply swallow whatever tasty morsel comes our way. Make no mistake, the Kony2012 video is quite tasty. It's well produced, clever - even cute at times with the filmmaker's interactions with his young son. It tugs at our emotions; appeals to our underlying desire to join with others in a worthy cause.

Apparently even this blog will not escape the run metaphor - in spite it's relative length for a viral video, Kony2012 still allows us to sprint. We watch, we feel, we believe, we share, we move on. We may even go a step or two further and actually act; sharing the video with politicians or celebrities, as suggested by Invisible Children. We may put up posters.

I'm not saying any of those actions is wrong. I am glad for the awareness of what is happening in Uganda, a country I love. I am glad that people are caring about things outside themselves and wanting to do something. God knows we need a story worth participating in.

But, learning is not a sprint - it is a marathon. When it comes to this, or any other story, before we take action, it'd be good for us to do the harder work - dig in to discover what's there; discern what is being communicated (and what isn't, and what else could be, and what's the agenda of the communicator, and what a different perspective might communicate); and then decide what, if any, action is required of us.