Social Media Is A Necessary Evil

Of late social media is gaining lots of mileage. People just post anything that comes to their mind and share with the general public. Most of these are speculations, exaggerations and even false alarming just to wake you, confuse you or perhaps ridicule you.

People have to organize a press conferences, radio and TV announcements to vindicate themselves. People go through all these hustles because somebody has just defamed, slandered or abused them and need to set the record straight. Because some of these allegations have consequential future effects.

Recently, several information are streaming on the social media and people mistakenly believe that some top class people like musicians are dead, some TV and Radio presenters have been sacked; but will be confirmed later not to be true.

People post important messages for advice and some of the comments they get are coercive and sometimes will be turned to insults, wrong advice and even people ask those seeking their advice to hasten their decisions although they know that could be detrimental to their health.

A 19 year old lady posted on her facebook wall that she was in dilemma whether to accept a proposal from a 75 year old man and people started commenting on this. In all, one thousand people commented on this during the time under review. Almost 75 per cent said she should accept the proposal while only one per cent said she should get a job before marrying a person of her age.

In the case of Aminah, she wanted to know if she would get a husband because her friends and family members are teasing her that she was not beautiful. One thousand and five hundred people had commented on her post and 25 per cent goaded her by comparing her to a goat, 30 percent said she can never get a husband, 20 percent asked her to go to the zoo for a beast relationship while only 1 per cent encouraged her that she shouldn’t worry men look for character but not beauty.

Similarly, Aku posted on her wall that she wanted to slash her throat because her boyfriend has broken their relation. Surprisingly, 55 per cent asked her to hasten her decision, 40 per cent advised her to stop and 5 percent humiliated her by insulting her as a bitch.

People are ridiculing and shaming others through social media. The worse is the politicians and ethnic groups such as Dagaabas and Frafras, Radio Gold and Friends on John Dramani Mahama. The expensive nature of the game needs to be moderated by the National Communication Authority and the National Media Commission for peaceful life in Ghana.

There are lots of sarcastic messages streaming on the social media about our politicians. Despite that this is an important means to correct the society; it must be done professionally and carefully devoid of slandering and provocation. It must be a fact and needs to be polished to suit the narration.

Today, people are using satire on the social media to slander our sitting and past presidents on their social media platform. While some are insulting the authorities that they don’t deserve their political position, others use their social media platform to predict 2020 elections by insulting and praising the appropriate people. In such comics, one must be careful with content. Remember your liberty ends when someone’s nose begins. Therefore, produce such comic reliefs but be careful of its content. This Christmas, display important messages on your social media wall. Let’s criticize constructively than naming and shaming people for share disrespect.

DANIEL DJAN
MINISTRY OF HEALTH
ACCRA