Two weeks ago, the Invisible Children video "Kony 2012" went viral, currently scoring more than 80 million hits on YouTube.
And then the group was inundated by a tsunami of negative press.
From filmaker Jason Russell's public breakdown last week to questions about how the group spends the donations it takes in to concerns over the accuracy of its video, it was a very mixed two weeks for the nonprofit.
The video details the atrocities committed in Uganda by Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army. Kony abducts children into his militia and forces them to become killers and sex slaves. Criticism has centered on the perceived lack of Ugandan voices as well as the lack of some facts. Kony was pushed out of Uganda by the government in 2005, an event not mentioned in "Kony2012."
SDSU psychology Professor Jean Twenge recently released a study which noted the civic and humanitarian disengagement of the millennial generation, the very young people most passionate about the Invisible Children cause.
We asked Professor Twenge whether these young people are likely to become disillusioned and perhaps even more centered on money and fame than they are now as a result of this rush of negative press, or whether fame is fame, negative or positive.
