It goes without saying that, social media has more than changed the game in the dissemination of news
and information in this day and age.
With a global audience at one’s beck and call by simply owning a smart device, one is tempted to say social media has more than changed the way we interact, dare I say almost replaced the mundane on the daily. Now, for the older generation that lived in a much simpler time that placed values on simple courtesy’s like a “hello” or a “Hi” to a stranger or a smile, they see social media as the thief that has robbed society and them of these little acts of pleasantries. Children and adults alike spend endless hours behind their screens with not enough time or a care in the world to as much as lift their heads to say a simple “Hi” or “Hello” to the next person.
These days, most people would rather send you a smiling emoji later, rather than actually smile to express how they feel. Social media has presented us the perfect conduit to outsource this simple and genuine expression of emotion. The cloak of anonymity some of these applications provide, present the perfect excuse to constituting a nuisance on platforms you probably have no business being on. Some then go a step further to abuse public figures and personalities they feel their chances of meeting in real life, is about as likely as my chances of scoring a date with Malia Obama (not happening in a million years).
Social media has inadvertently emboldened cowards, with as little as a few megabytes of data and some
buzzwords they get to unleash venom from their couch. Social media has created a phenomenon of
“accidental” nudists. Persons whose follower count increased astronomically the one time they put out
a sexually suggestive content and so undoing that would mean losing their relevance and opportunity to
cash out. What happens when you’re forced to confront the horrifying reality of the social media image
you created?
If you’ve been on Ghanaian twitter streets long enough, the twitter handle (@BongoIdeas) is one you’d
most likely have encountered in the trends. The young man behind that account is one the tag a “rebel
without a course” fits to a tee. For a very long time, he made the constant vilification of Television
personalities like Nana Aba Anamoah, Serwaa Amihere and Bridget Otoo his stock in trade. Mocked,
criticize and called them distasteful names at every turn, and in a karmic twist of events he walked into
the studios of these personalities to audition for a reality show. Nana Aba on recognizing him pulled up
some of his tweets and asked him to say those things to their face. What he said? Your guess is as good
as mine. He would later claim to have ran for dear life afterwards.
Recently, Ghollywood actress Yvonne Nelson came under fire for claiming to have used her discretionary powers to deny a job seeker an opportunity after noticing she had him blocked. She would later clarify that she wasn’t going to hire a person that was being disrespectful to her. Those that criticized her approach thought that was too harsh a punishment, and that she could have used that as a teachable moment to get him to change his ways. Personally, that admonishing is nothing short of a truckload of “doodoo”. First of all, nobody holds the monopoly to vindictiveness and secondly, you don’t get to sully my name and then get to determine how I react. Just as no one gets to tell anybody how to run their social media account, same way you don’t get to determine how people react to your taunts and snide remarks on their platforms. Noticeable in the tsunami of comments that greeted both incidents were a section of twitter users that lacked a sense of accountability. Actions have consequences (good or bad). For every post on your social media you put out there, be ready for whatever that comes afterwards.
In an era of “cancel culture”, social media has proven to be the perfect hunting ground for people looking to launch a smear campaign of any kind to discredit a competitor or a rival. Celebrities have had to come out to render endless apologies concerning a 6 or 8-year-old post that someone dug up in an attempt to discredit them.
Social media for all the negatives has more than made up with the overwhelming positives since it came
mainstream as alternate media. It has birthed businesses, movements, relationships and connections.
What is clear is that, it is not just social media anymore. Everything that goes on, on whatever platform
one decides to latch unto has real life consequences. It is about time we preach the responsible use of
all these platforms to avoid having to explain our posts or tweets in later years, because quite clearly the
excuse that it is just twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Tiktok isn’t going to cut it.
Written by Alhassan Hafiz Gunu
