The Youth And The Social Media: A Worrying Phenomenom?

It is very amazing how social media is gaining grounds in the lives of many youths around the world particularly in Africa where the standard of living is relatively low. Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Tango, WeChat, Instagram, etc. have seen tremendous increase in users in the past 5 years. This has also offered the mobile phone firms the opportunity to exploit the growing need of the gadgets needed to stay active on these platforms.

So I asked myself, why are the youth in particular is gaining much interest for these social media whilst the negativity of exploitation is also increasing. Having been on Facebook, twitter, Instagram and viber for some time, I came to notice one interesting aspect of the abuse on these media groups which I want to share with you. I have close 300 followers on twitter and I follow a close to 1000, 2438 Facebook friends and about 1870 WhatsApp friends. I averagely spend about 3 hours of my time every day on one or more of these platforms. Nevertheless, I will say I have made many impact and gained some substantial sum of money in using these platforms to expound my ideas and products.

But few can share in this story, either they are on them to make friends, find sexual partners or engage in some criminal activities (cyber-crimes). It has been a common trend in Africa of late that you see in your inbox each day about someone telling stories of his/her parents dead and need someone to help retrieve some inheritance, or someone showing interest in you just to be a partner. Only few people on these media platforms have genuine intentions. So what then can we say about the future of this world knowing that the majority of active users are the youth.

I like taking adventure, so one day I decided to play to the tricks on these platforms especially Facebook. It developed to the extent that the person on the other side asked me to send her $2000 for her to process her document to retrieve an inheritance of about $2million. I just laughed and laughed till the power in my laptop went dead. What a dumb way to make money.

One worrying trend is the abuse of privacy and the way we quickly divulge nude pictures of people and spread rumours of events as well. I was happy to have listened to Drive in the City on Citi FM 97.3, when Jessica spoke extensively about the Do's and don'ts s of these platforms and how to ensure good usage of them.

Someone sat down to develop these platforms, and instead of us making good use of it, we seldom abuse it and this has even pushed a lot of genuine investors out of these areas. I Facebook a lot and is no wonder I have been able to make a lot of good friends and also made meaningful impact in the lives of many. This to me has been my biggest motivation for making good use of these social platforms, but many youth and old can have bitter experience to share instead of the best am sharing with you.

Arguably, in the next 10 years to come, the grammar of these same youth will be questionable due to the kind of abbreviated writings used on these social platforms. No wonder my big brother who is a senior high school teacher constantly see certain writings like 'dat-that, Ur-your, btn-between, gm-good morning etc.' in many of the scripts he marks. So you meet a very nice young man and he cannot speak correct simple English for a minute without switching to 'pidgin' English.

But on a more serious note, the most worrying aspect of the youth's exposure to these social media has been the influx of sexual workers who use the platform for professional gains. I was taken aback when I received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number asking me to call if I want to have fun. The story was not different when I checked from few friends. On Facebook and Instagram is even worse and many have fallen prey to the tricks of the so-called fraudsters.

It is of no surprise that anything you tag with the word 'sex' on YouTube will get the most views. So as a youth, I keep wondering whether our generation is most privileged to have these technological advancement or we would have been better off without them. Interestingly, the adult and old people are not just watching from afar, but some actively participating in the abuse of these platform.

From my point of view, it is of great value to have these platforms but the menace it is causing cannot be overlooked. General productivity is low due to the number of hours we spend on these social media platforms, road accident is on the increase because a lot of people WhatsApp, tweet and tango whiles driving.

One final point that I want to emphasis is the breakdown of human interaction that these platforms has brought. This has eaten into every home to the extent that families hardly have time for each other simply because after the day's work, father is on twitter, mummy is whatsApping and little Johnny is Facebooking.

Technology is good, its advancement is better, but making good use of it is the best and I believe until we enjoy making good use of these social platforms, it will always be an albatross on our neck as youth, and the future of the nation.

Samuel Nana Kwame Aboagye
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Facebook: Nana Cwame Aboagye
Twitter: @NanaCwame