Social media is making us dumber in Africa.
This is 2018 and the world is mature from “becoming” a global community to “being” a global community. Which is why you are reading this article. This is from the case that enough information can be passed to most people in the world just through a click. This has been a revelation to civilization,in that there is an avenue for mass knowledge attainment to anyone who is well connected to the internet. People far and wide has suddenly become our closest neighbors. But there’s a danger to this,especially in Africa.
According to a report by REUTERS, South Africans spent an average of 3.2 hours daily on social networks,which is 1,168 hours yearly,compared to a global average of 2.4 hours. Where is this leading us?A continent still wallowing in suffering,despite being the soul of civilization.
DANGERS
The young generation of Africans spend a good amount of time on the web,most especially social media. Social platforms like Facebook,Twitter,Instagram and so on, is now an obsession among them. The virus is spreading quickly and is dwindling our development. We care more about the likes and dislikes on our social media page than what’s happening in our government.
We discuss redundant topics like celebrity clashes or unnecessary opinions than what would move us forward as a young generation. Which,judging from the empirical point of our development,is saddening.
LET’S BACK UP A LITTLE
Don’t get me wrong,as earlier said,the advent of the web and social media improved social interaction in Africa. Awareness on poor governments and serious cases has been launched easily,for example the ousting of Zimbabwean president,Robert Mugabe in 2017,and also,the bring back our girls campaign(#BBOG)in Nigeria which caused waves all over the world. The success of all these can be credited to the embodiment of the social media. But is this in a way hurting our progress?
BACK TO DANGERS
According to the professors in 14 Nigerian universities,the performance of students has dropped by a good 48% since social networks became prominent in Nigeria. Students are now more involved with their phones than with the books. We prefer to refresh the Facebook news feed than refresh our memories. We write in 280 characters everyday but can’t write a good business email. The hope of Africa,the youth are been wasted on electronic devices and misuse of social media.
With a click of a mouse,our consciousness is exposed to the most irrelevant things out there. We get the most negative of news. Our social cycle drowns in a sea of antagonisms. We fight each other,criticize and demean each other. As young as we are,we judge a group of people by their most flaccid and unfortunate units. We ignore our inheritance,our government,for the extraneous news and poor opinion cycle. Cheap arguments is the new table discussions in our libraries.
Low self-esteem rule our day. A behaviour that was nonexistent in Africa decades ago. We can’t hold real conversations anymore. Everyone is a warrior behind the screen and a Teddy in reality. We are easily influenced by what’s trending. Our concentration is sold to things that won’t matter to us in years to come.
Our attention span is as low as ever. We click and swipe within minutes. The sad part being that it’s crawling into our political structure,and this might cause an incurable damage to the African Society.
IS THERE A CONVENIENT WAY TO GET OUT OF THIS?
Yes there is.
And it’s simple.
We should just reassess our use of it. I don’t mean we should throw our phones and devices to the bin and go back to the caveman days. But I mean we should sieve the relevant information that pours into our consciousness.
No time wasting on Facebook or Twitter,no petty discussions on social platforms,follow good journalism with thorough research and statistics,focus our attention on things that will matter in years to come,and strengthen the root that will hold a great Africa in centuries to come.
Okoro Uche is a student of Pharmacy at the University Of Lagos.A budding web content writer,Interested in content marketing,and taking a course on SEOs.
He writes at thecursednigerian.wordpress.com
