by Otolorin Olabode
It seems social media has come to stay in Nigeria especially among our youths and adults. After the successful penetration of Facebook, subsequent entries of Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn have been greeted with lots of views and reviews. However as it is with everything in life, an advantage of a thing likewise has a disadvantage. Social media has benefitted various classes of people in Nigeria. From the bloggers(Omojuwa, Linda Ikeji, OloriSuperGal) to the upcoming artistes, social media has been a huge benefit to a lot of people.
Nevertheless, it seems social media has altered our brain’s configuration settings. An average Nigerian wakes up and the first thing he does is to check Whatsapp messages. Thoughts like “Has he replied?” “Has she accepted to go out on a date with me?”, are always popular on the minds of the Nigerian youth. Another may decide to check on Instagram if his recent post has garnered likes or how many followers he has gained overnight.
Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook all rank high in the list of social Media Apps on an average Nigerian Youth smartphone. Especially on Twitter where all kinds of savages are recorded. An average Nigerian can spend 10hours tweeting, retweeting and replying on mostly trivial and unnecessary issues. Why have we not tried to convert those hours of Joblessness to ones of making money. Especially our celebrities who most Nigerians troll and condemn on these social medias, these people are making money off those controversies. Remember the time when Linda Ikeji got embroiled in a fight with Wizkid? Truth is, she had many visitors, views and comments on her blog due to that controversy. It’s time for every Nigerian to make judicious use of social Media. Stop wasting time and energy begging for likes to win a competition on Instagram when you could make far enough money through efficient use of social media. Many have abused social media to the extent of taking photos in heir friends’ clothes just to post on Instagram or rather taking photos in their lingerie or posing half-naked.
Relationships have been formed on various social media sites but it’s on record that Social media has also destroyed some “once upon a time fruitful relationship”. The thing is news and information spread much faster on social media. Accusations of infidelity ranging from the husband seen in company with another woman to the wife captured in a hotel with another man, What about the nude photos and video of ladies released by their ex-boyfriend? Even our parents are on Instagram stalking and monitoring their children!
Definitely, Social media has tampered with our brain’s configuration settings!
Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija
Otolorin Olabode is a student of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. He is a Creative writer and also a seasoned content writer. He handles Latest9ja, a news and entertainment website. His IG handle is @ viewsfromthebod .
Leave a reply