By Ayo Dada
There is so much social media bashing. People say it is about ‘noise’, propaganda, lies, etc. Yet, the politicians respond to it. Example Tinubu’s aide just responded to his trip to London. Buhari banned twitter, yahoo boys, kidnappers, school and hotel proprietors and even evil lovers are caught due to social media ‘noise’.
The Endsars protest was so successful due to SM. Government officials have been embarrassed using social media, in sane climates, these officials will be cooling their heels in prison. SM is the number one disseminating medium of information everywhere in the world. You watch live news, politics, sports etc on SM. It is this same SM that the Nigerian government used to propagate and promote their rice pyramid on. People conduct their businesses, small and multimillion dollar ones on SM.
ALL print media houses now have SM platforms. It is the most powerful medium ever created by man. And yet, some want to make us believe it’s trash and ineffective, not so. That kind of mindset is a defeatist one, a defensive one, a disingenuous one. I can go on but won’t. Therefore, where else will one make ‘noise’? Where else will people ask their elected and wannabe elected officials questions, especially in our clime in Nigeria where your elected officials are not reachable and not physically available?
The protagonists and the antagonists’ officials and supporters in our politics in Nigeria use the social media platforms to attack, to defend and to make cases for their principals. Even many politicians have SM platforms.
Every serious social critics have Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to mention but a few, even the presidency have these platforms.
So, to generally disparage the social media is a diversionary tactic by some, hypocritical by some, disingenuous by many and genuine by some.
To those that feel this way genuinely, I say, yes, their will be misinformation, bastardization, fake stories and outright lies and all sorts on SM as it is in every facet of life which is unfortunate but true. However whoever cares for the truth and the real news, the answer, guess what, is still on social media.
The social media is like a market or a shopping mall, there are genuine and there are fake wares, there are quality and there are cheap wares, you go, you open your eyes, you know your pocket before you buy. (you gerrit? If you don’t gerrit, forgeabourit)
Until the appropriate authorities can come up with laws that will help control what is allowed and what is not on social media, you ignore the social media at your peril.
Ayo Dada
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