Social Media: The Good, The bad and The Ugly

By : Johnstone Kpilaakaa

Social media is a double-edged sword; on the other side it has provided an efficient medium for easy communication, as well as giving voice to those who were voiceless in the days of the “controlled traditional media“, it also created job opportunities for young people in the African continent and across the globe, the other side of the sword is the danger of misinformation, fake news, cyber bullying and it impacts on mental health.

The good and the bad of social media began more glaring in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, it’s true that the world has experienced a pandemic in the past but this is the first since the inception of social media, this increased the difficulty in managing conspiracy theories and misinformation. Since it’s the hub of independent authors, the quality of social media content is diverse, ranging from facts to ‘fake news’.

Since (In)accurate information can spread around the world within a very short time and influence perceptions and opinions of people negatively we have to verify the information before sharing it, this will enable a speedy mitigation of misinformation. On the other hand, to ensure good mental health as a social media user, do not allow it to define you. It’s true that people are flaunting their success, but that should not discourage you from your process, only allow people’s “results” to inspire you to do more. If you do not manage this, depression in this age is just a click away.

Maximize social media for digital productivity, learn skills that you can easily freelance with, you can leverage the platform to build wealth and reduce the high number of unemployment in our communities. Also, social media gives you access to networks or personalities that are quite difficult to access traditionally.

Finally, the fact that they are fake news and lifestyle on social media is a definition of who we really are as a people; we have the good, the bad, and the ugly in the real world just like on social media. So all of these are expected. In my opinion, the good and bad sides of social media are here to stay as far as human beings are the ones using it but we can minimize the bad effects individually and collectively.