Social media is a term that describes applications and websites that allow users to socially interact with each other online. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, Google hangouts, LinkedIn, Snapchat to mention a few are some examples of social media platforms which allow users to access the latest trending information.
Social media’s effects on the Ghanaian youth are both positive and negative.
Youth between the ages of 12 and 25 are most vulnerable to the negative sides of social media. They are the ones who spend long hours socializing and browsing the internet instead of doing academic work. This may be one reason that as many as 78% of students who wrote the recent West African Senior School Certificate Examination, (WASSCE) failed in their exams.
Even though such a huge failure rate cannot simply be blamed on just social media, the signs clearly point to a link.
Particularly, there was an observation that a lot of the candidates were writing social media-like type of words instead of the correct English words. For example, The becomes ‘de’, what became ‘wat’, you becomes ‘u’, and so on as normally used in online chats between peers.
There is a second negative effect on the family. The traditional family system where parents and their children spent quality time in conversation is gradually breaking down as family members’ heads stay glued to mobile phones- either chatting or checking the latest news in town. Over a long term, this could threaten family bonding and affect our larger society badly.
A third negative effect is the easy access to online content without restrictions that allows young people to become exposed to pornographic and fraudulent websites. The wave of sex tapes that have become the order of the day now is simply an attempt to reproduce what they so easily have access to, thanks to social media.
Aside all these negative points however, the positive sides of social media are countless, enormous and beneficial.
Social media provides an avenue for people to meet each other, deliberate, share ideas on politics, entertainment, current affairs, business ventures etc.
Most youth of today around ages 24 and above use the power of social media to market and advertise various forms of businesses. They able to sell their ideas to people through these channels without paying a penny.
Students are also able to get help on academic and related issues when they join various social forums on the internet. Basic research for assignments is almost fully conducted online nowadays.
In summary, the vital question we all need to address is how best can we make use of the unlimited amount of information available on these social media platforms? Shall we use it for business ? For social good? What else? And what does the future hold?
About
Fatima Ibrahim is a telecoms engineer who specializes in the newest technologies for communication. When she's not wearing her Engineering hat, she follows contemporary African music, movies and events- a passion she has had for years.
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