By
Maina Kiwiri
The 21st century has been a century of many changes
and technological advancements. Arguably the most important and influential
technological advancement of this century has been the internet. With the
internet came other branches of the internet such as social media that have now
become extremely prominent in the daily life and culture of many a people.
There are millions of people on the internet who are
looking to meet other people and to gather and share information and
experiences on a variety of topics. Because of this, hundreds of social
networking sites have been created, and they have attracted millions of users
in the few short years that social networking has become a phenomenon.Most of
the key features of these sites are very similar, yet the cultures that form
around the social networking sites vary in many different ways. Some of the
sites target diverse audiences, while others attract people based on common
language, race, sexual preferences, religion, or nationality. The sites also
vary the ways in which the show and incorporate new information and
communication tools, like mobile access, blogging, and photo and video sharing
(Boyd, Ellison, 2007).
From students to journalists, One Direction to the
Presidents - lots of people use social media sites for both work and pleasure. Social networking has lots of good points.
Social
networking is a topic that divides opinion - some people think it's an amazing
tool but others are worried about the impact it has on people's lives. You can express yourself, showing off your favorite
song lyrics or posting pictures of your new outfit. It is a lot harder to feel
embarrassment over the internet than in person, so people find it easier to
vent their feelings on sites like Facebook. In fact, it has become so much a
part of people's lives that you can learn someone's life story just by checking
their page. Their friends, likes and dislikes, relationship status, phone
number, address…everything. You can share your feelings and your mental stresses
- and it is a great way to entertain yourself after a busy daily routine. It
also makes it a lot easier to keep in touch with family and friends, especially
if they live far away. But you can also make new friends by connecting with
friends of friends that you might not know.
Addiction is one thing so profound with social
media. It glues people to it longer than enough. People are more than constantly
checking Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Vine or
other social media updates. This addiction could negatively affect other valued
activities like concentrating on studies, taking active part in sports, real
life communication and ignoring ground realities.
All these said, Let us give social media the respect
it deserves. The social media platform has been abused so much especially by
the youth to an extent of almost losing its meaning. Primarily, as pointed out
above, social media sites were created to socialize, share information, make
friends just to mention but a few purposes. Then came a generation that
realized that they could easily sneak in stuff without being asked as their
parents ‘hawk eyes’ were not present to oversee and man their posts and
comments online. That’s when the doom of the social media good purposes set in.
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| popular singer Miley Cyrus tweeted this picture hours before album launch |
Nude pictures
of young men and women found their way into the internet. They became the order
of the social media especially among the young people. The prime purposes of
social media has since then changed. Social media has changed into a beauty and
nudity peageant competition. As if marketing themselves and their bodies, these
young men and women post a string of photos and images clad in clothing
appearing too early and ending too late. Young ladies have now found a platform
to feed the hungry eyes of young men without questioning by their parents or
guardians. Photos taken in the bathroom naked, others half naked in all manners
of poses and facial expressions are hard to avoid nowadays especially on
instagram and face book.
Comments such as Sexy, sweet, breathtaking et cetera
align themselves below nude posts of young ladies. Others commenting as if
reprimanding these posts are shushed by other comments telling them to unfollow
or unfriend them if they do not like it. Others are even dubbed as backward
from the 60s and behind. Not forgetting that 90 percent of these comments come
from men who view sex objects in them and only wish they had a chance. Just
ones. Social media has changed the view
of women and their bodies as valuable and to be honored. The internet usage has
reduced them to objects of pleasure; sexual objects. As if they care not about
this, young ladies become even more psyched up and feed hungry eyes with more
nude pictures and posts.
Whats app messenger as a form of social media has not
been left out either. Videos and photos that were not meant for the public are
now circulated easily, the most recent case being a video of one Kenyan DJ DJ
crème de la creme having sex. This video found its way to peoples gadgets as
soon as it fell in the wrong hands. Not leaving out the infamous Mollis clip
that was recorded as the guy by name Morris was recorded or recorded an audio
of him having sex with an anonymous lady. These videos, audios and photos
especially those with sexual inclinations are very good at trending over
whatsapp. Whilst we all know that the Whats app messenger was created for
sharing information, sensible, over the internet, the information sent however
is going overboard.
Accidents happen and the next things you see on your whats app messenger are images of victims from the accident dead or alive.
Images of mutilated bodies’ victims of terror attacks are fast passed around
mobile phones. This is against the rights of such persons.
Facebook, Instagram, tweeter among others have now
become a place for the youth to run away to, spend time, get information and
market themselves. Social media is now leading to laziness. Someone wakes up in
the morning, switches his gadget on say a laptop and is glued there until its
lunch time, goes back, continues chatting, commenting, posting things until
dinner is ready. He then checks again on Facebook and other media before
retiring to bed ready for the same tomorrow.
Social media has been abused. It has been used for
the wrong reasons with excuse of freedom of expression, taking advantage of the
fact that no supervision or minimal oversight is done on our posts and
comments. Social media has lost its primary meaning and purpose to the ways and
likes of its users.
Social media should be treated as a facet of an
overall marketing plan with clear objectives, ROI goals, and a thoughtful
strategy with a set of tactics. It should be treated as a means of acquiring
information. Social media should be used to share sensible information. It
should not be an excuse for laziness. Social media should not be the reason
women have been degraded to objects of pleasure. Neither should it infringe on
the rights of any individual male or female, dead or alive, young or old. Let
social media be social media. A platform to socialize, make friends, share
information and have fun. Let social media be used to help people grow. Let us
use social media with care and intelligence, with wisdom and understanding. Let
us use social media for what it is rightfully supposed to be used for. 
