Social Media Now devour the Society

                       

Social sites were created purposely for entertainment, socialization, relieving stress and to make the world a global village where access to friends is not hindered by distance. When they emerged and took center stage as sites for communication, they did serve their purpose of uniting the world, friends, organizations and family entities. It was like an addiction where people could be locked in these sites for hours exchanging jokes and updates that didn’t elicit any emotions. They were real entertainment joints that didn’t raise the antenna of parents and were the antidote for stress relief.

Indeed, the number social site users has grown unprecedentedly over the years. An indication that the world is embracing these sites and they are here to stay. However, of great concern is the direction that social media is taking on a daily basis. 

Social sites have become conduits of emotional imbalance where people hide behind the buttons to show their dissatisfaction with relationships, office work, meetings and their bosses. They have become battlefields for settling scores where husbands, wives, priests and lectures are insulted in public. Relationships that were once considered private affairs are no longer viewed so. Instead,  breakups are now updated daily.

Have you ever open your account and met an inbox from a lady with complicated name promising heaven and openly admitting to have fallen for your profile picture? Upon viewing her details, her picture doesn’t disappoint either. She presents you with her email contact for further communication away from the social site that she claim to visit daily.  Welcome to the world of con men in social media.

Ethnicity and pornographic sites have not escaped these sites either. Group pages whose names don’t hide their intentions are created on a daily basis, pages that houses and promotes inter-tribal insults and exchange of unpleasant words that revoke ethnicity and propels inter-community hatred. Nude photos have continued to fly around social sites without regards their audience, depicting a rotten society. 

Pictures of dead relatives, accident victims and grotesque pictures taken from hospital beds and mortuaries have continued to dominate social media, making people to open their accounts with a lot of caution because you never sure of the picture that will bump into your eye in front of friends and family members.

It is true we are living in the information age and the benefits of social media in the 21^st century cannot be quashed away, but lets us use these sites in ways that makes them retain their intended purpose. 

Reagan Nyadimo

Associate Editor, Career Magazine 2014

Kenyatta University

Published in Daily Nation Wed, 11, 2013 pg 14