The Razzmatazz of New Media

It was a very sunny Friday afternoon at a crowded ATM machine where I patiently waited for my turn on the queue and I discovered that nobody seems to grumble even when the machine had stopped dispensing cash. Then I noticed everyone was preoccupied with their mobile gadgets

Even when the machine ran out of cash, I was amazed to see Nigerians maintain their cool still standing under the hot weather and waiting for the bank officials to reload the machine with cash. I however realised that everyone at that moment was busy networking via different channels of the social media. This kept them busy and full of live to patiently wait for the officials to be through. 

The accessibility of these networking channels which are ‘on-the-go’ has really made life interesting and fun filled as they get people active and reduce boredom. They have become networking channels that 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. Who do we blame with all these negative acts ravaging our society via social media; obviously we can’t blame the founders of the various channels of social communications. In as much as there has been some perilous acts generated by SMN, the immense positive impact it has on us is undisputable. What we need is to be discipline and sensitive in our usage of the new media.

There is so much to learn from using the social 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. Every user is at liberty to determine the impact it will have on him/her.