Conformity-Non-Conformity

Intent:

It is common for Facebook users to alter their profile pictures in support of some social movement they and their friends consider important. The most recent example of this phenomenon is the sudden flood of rainbow profile pictures in response to the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. Others include green tinted profile pictures in support of the Arab Spring, or equal signs as profile pictures, also in support of same-sex marriage.

Then there's the Kony 2012 campaign. Spawned from short film intended to bring attention to African militia leader Joseph Kony, it was an effort to have the war criminal arrested by the end of that year, though it eventually died down amidst corruption accusations and the film's director's public mental breakdown. The campaign has since ascended to almost Internet meme-levels of notoriety, often ironically cited to call attention to "slacktivism". 

What if I changed my profile picture (and possibly cover photo) to one supporting the Kony 2012 campaign? How will people react to the reappearance of such a forgotten event? Having never participated in any of these profile picture movements, will this change be seen as genuine, ironic, or sarcastic support, or some combination of the three?

Process:

The entire process consisted of choosing an appropriate image and setting it as my profile picture on Facebook. Using the popular search engine Google, I found an initial assortment of images related to Kony 2012. I browsed these for a few seconds, then set my search settings to only show higher resolution images. It was also important to select one that featured "Kony 2012" prominently, so the subject would be easily identifiable at a glance.

Product:

Eventually, I settled on this picture:

Effect:

My profile picture change was met with a lukewarm response, which was actually pretty consistent with my expectations. I don't normally use Facebook as a means of communication, liking and commenting very infrequently, and having made only 3 posts in the past 6 months. Nowadays, I primarily use it to chat with only a few friends, with most of these communications transitioning to other social media platforms. Of the 4 people who "liked" the post, 1 was in this class, while the other 3 were people I have not talked to since I graduated from high school. Meanwhile, I continued to chat normally with other friends through Steam, Gmail chat, and text messaging, where there was also little comment outside of one friend asking "what is your prof pic"(through Facebook message).  

Reflection:

Perhaps Facebook was not the correct platform to choose for this experiment. My low participation on this platform means that even my normal posts garner relatively low numbers of "likes". This, paired with the seeming randomness of the outdated change, probably caused it to fly under the radar for most of my Facebook friends. 

I've also realized that the social media platforms I participate most in are ones where profile pictures are unimportant or absent altogether: Reddit, Steam, and Gmail. This may be a reflection of my friends' characters as well, since many people I regularly communicate with also do not actively post to Facebook. Therefore, it seems that those of us who gather outside of a particular form of social media won't receive strong feedback from others who actively participate.