On board the social media train
After having stated in this column sometime ago that I wasn’t a supporter of that application, I never thought that I would be joining the social media train. But then, neither did I think that I would ever have cause to say thank you to a thief.
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My backtracking came about because my preferred mobile or cell phone, which I shall term No. 1, was stolen a few months ago.
I lost the phone on a day when I had some important calls to make. Therefore, it meant that I had to frantically look for phone No. 2, a smartphone that a friend had ‘dashed’ me, which I had obstinately refused to use. I said I couldn’t be bothered to learn how to use it when No. 1 was serving all my needs.
However, that morning, not only did I have to find the phone I had not been on speaking terms with for more than two years, I also had to learn how to use it immediately because of the contacts I needed to make!
Incidentally, although the No. 1 was supposed to have social media applications, I had not activated them. I can’t count the number of times family and friends had expressed disappointment because I wasn’t on WhatsUp/WhatsApp when they wanted to share some information or photos with me. All their hints and suggestions fell on deaf ears – until the thief struck.
Anyway, when I practically sprinted to the nearest Vodafone office that morning with my No. 2 to buy a duplicate sim card, out of curiosity I asked if the WhatsApp could be activated, and in no time it had been done.
I must admit that social media is a very useful tool for information-gathering and sharing, as well as a great way to pass the time – if, and when, you have time to pass, that is. But its potential for mischief is also indisputable.
Surely, the current mushrooming of ‘fake news’ is to be blamed on social media. It’s getting so that it’s now more and more difficult to tell what is genuine news and what is just deviants apparently amusing themselves by circulating fabricated reports.
Some of it is light-hearted fun, but what about when somebody deliberately sends out fake news which they know will cause fear and panic?
On January 9, there was a news item being circulated on social media about an accident in the Central Region, alleging that many students of a well-known school there had died. It turned out to be a fake news item. Yes, there had been an accident, but nobody had died; and that school wasn’t involved.
One wonders what possesses such people.
It is interesting that apparently some of social media’s most dedicated fans are high profile personalities, including Presidents! I suppose politicians find it a marvellous and cheap way to reach multitudes, notably the youth; and they want to demonstrate that they are information and communications technology-savvy.
At present it seems that if you’re not part of the social media world, you don’t count. And sooner or later you’ll be dragged in!
Anyway, although I’ve become a social media convert, it doesn’t mean that I’m a total captive! When I come across an ‘against’ view, I read it with relish. An example is this abridged opinion about Facebook from The Oldie, a UK monthly magazine. It was actually published last year, but I think its message is still relevant:
“I’ve never really known what Facebook was all about, or why people were so keen to belong to it (so keen, in fact, that the 31-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, its founder, now has an estimated fortune of $46 billion), but at some point I was persuaded to register and to accept as ‘friends’ people whom I hardly knew but didn’t want to offend by turning away.
“It was a mistake … I receive communications from it every day of a disconcerting kind.
“Usually these tell me that I have received several messages from people that I don’t know how to reply to … Then there are the messages urging me to wish so-and-so a Happy Birthday. The birthday is usually of somebody I barely know and which I wouldn’t dream of celebrating ….
“Then there are the curious people who are constantly ‘updating their status’ … this promise of an update seems no more than an excuse for telling people what boring things they have been doing for the past day or two. Why do they think I would care?
“Finally, there are those – the most numerous of all – who are driven by some narcissistic urge to send me new photographs of themselves …I wonder what they expect me to do with them all. Print them out, frame them, and hang them on my wall? Keep copies of them lovingly in my wallet?” (‘The Old Un’s Notes’, from The Oldie of May, 2016).
Much as social media applications are useful, the freedom that allows their irresponsible use needs to be checked. There is also the decrease in interpersonal contact.
And it is also time-consuming, even addictive, as I have found out! Because once you become a follower, you find yourself needing to access it many times a day to ‘chat’ with other devotees or contribute to a discussion. Not too long ago, a Ghana Television programme featured a story about a distraught young woman whose lover had broken up with her because she spent all her time on Facebook!
Needless to say, it also means that you lose money while the phone companies make more money.
Anyway, I may have decided to be counted among the social media followers via WhatsApp, thanks to a thief, but I’m in no rush to board the Facebook and Twitter trains too!