THE BANE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE NIGERIAN SOCIETY

BY DANIEL BULUSSON, ESQ

It is no longer news social media has contributed to the development of Nigeria in one way or other, it brought about a fast means of sharing information from the Government to the governed, it also turned some innovative youths into millionaires (e.g Linda Ikeji, Paystack, e.t.c), but then again, despite its advantages, it has created a vacuum that needs to be filled in our society.

The Federal Government which is made up of great men and women who grew up without the use of technology, are now faced with the issue of fake news and its effect in our society. Government Officials understand the importance of social media, that is why they employ people to run their social media handles, but because they are not conversant with the pace of technology, they are oblivious as to where to channel their resources to curb the cons of social media.

It is my humble opinion, that instead of pushing for legislations to regulate the use of social media, why not empower the players responsible for sharing information through the various social media platforms, by providing a pool of funds and an agency to support social media influencers, bloggers, online news media who genuinely vet and post information critical to the development of the country.

This way, the government creates a module of boosting economic opportunities for teeming youths who desire to use social media to bring about positive social change to the country. This in turn will create a pattern, where the youths instead of using social media to share personal proclivities, they engage themselves on how to use the social media to earn a living for themselves.

To cut the long story short, ‘fake news’ is the enemy of our society not ‘social media’, hence, the focus of the Federal government to regulate social media strictly because of the issue fake news is likened to a person using a hammer to crack an egg. The right approach to take is to tap into the fountain of talents wasting away and focus the attention and resources towards engaging their mind to use social media for the development and improvement of the country.

Daniel Bulusson is a legal professional and legal journalist. {Do send your observation{s}, comment{s} and suggestions to danielbulusson@gmail.com}