The Antics of the New Media

By: Okafor Florence.

 

It was a splendid Sunday evening when I sat at the reception with my popcorn and fruit juice waiting for the next movie at the cinema. Then I noticed everyone around me was busy with their handheld devices irrespective of their various group discussions. Others who were on the queue to purchase tickets were never bored as they were also preoccupied with their devices.

 

I observed that everyone at that moment was busy networking via different channels of the social media. This made them busy and full of live as against the old norm of using boring handheld devices.

 

These networking channels facilitate the building of relationships among people enabling them to share common interest, activities, backgrounds, and other connections that are of benefits. The social media is so structured now that it has various professional channels that everyone is able to fit into.

 

The good thing social media has done in communication is that everyone is accessible via at least one of the social networking channels. The thrust of social media is to bridge communication gap in an ever evolving society with people of all ages, race, religion, tribe and culture thereby making the world indeed a global village.

 

Social media has made communication easy and less expensive; it is an avenue to connect with old friends and relatives whose contacts we have lost, it has also made research very easy, it enables people to promote their businesses and create visibility on the global stage.

 

In all it gains across different spheres, the country has been bedevilled by some unwholesome acts attributed to the new media. It has become a lucrative path where fraudsters and other criminal-minded individuals have defrauded innocent people of their hard earned money and other valuables. Some Nigeria youths have met their waterloo as a result of deceit from strangers via social media.

 

It has also generated a lot of misinformation, crippled marriages/relationships through cheap blackmails and the latest of it all now is impersonation.

 

With all these negative acts travailing in our society via social media, are we going to query the founders of the various channels of communications? In as much as there has been some perilous acts generated by SMN, it could be agreed upon that it has also impacted positively on our generation. What we need is to be discipline and sensitive in our usage of the new media.

 

We need to be more productive in the usage of social media instead of doing frivolous things that may not add value to our lives. Social media channels are rich in wisdom and can make one become a reference point in terms of success.  Every user is at liberty to determine the impact it will have on him/her.