Eric Wamanji
If you want a quick glimpse of the emotional turbulence folks face, peruse their Facebook pages. Here such phrases as “you don’t know what you have until you lose it; men are dogs; ave learnt not 2 trust any1; I only trust in God; I can live without U; it’s my life; its my destiny…” flood the pages fast and furious every minute. Well, it hints that someone has been dumped or played!
That is why, folks, online is home of tears and cheers!
It is understandable. The blogosphere has emerged as the neo-therapeutic centre for the troubled soul. It is here where all our frustrations, dirty linen, torn underwear, empty worlds are paraded. Here is where we vent hoping to find relief, empathy and sympathy. And isn’t this good folks? At this rate, then the state should compel most of us to access free internet, open accounts and encouraged to be online, at least the stress levels will be dealt with in the most affordable of ways.
In the cyber world too, we brandish our success real, imagined or faked. Its an interesting sphere where you can quickly understand the psycho-social milieu of mortals – especially those who claim to have gone to school and to have some little cash to spare for a Kentucky chicken and fries, where, they quickly snap and post…(Mary Mother of God, what a trivial world!)
But, ohoy! The bizarre doesn’t end with tormented and lost souls. The virtual space is also the lair of lunatics whose brief is to slander anyone and everyone. To extort big cash and to destroy. Individuals and corporates suffer in equal measure as the loafers tap on their keypads and clicking send with glee.
It is not that this activism is totally off-key. Nay. Some of these activists have exposed horrifying ill and rot in society that our media could not touch for reasons we all know.
But there is a growing chain of mischief-makers in search of cheap eminence, and their labor is to manufacture and merchandise lies. This is the lot to watch.
They pounce on you like greyhounds and maul you senseless. The netizens hail. They even stock the embers on an issue they neither fathom, nor concern them. This lynch mob mentality online has come to characterise our incivility.
It also explains why vigilance and surveillance of the goings-on online is critical for anyone who understands the power of narratives – fabricated or factual.
Yet, for society, as late as a decade ago, such vigilance was inconceivable. Outlets of mass information were scarce, moderated and even fairly regulated. Information was limited both in production and outreach. Not so since Sir. Tim-Berners Lee sauntered to town with the World Wide Web.
The rise of the information age unleashed the primal savage in humanity. Hence, it’s commonplace to encounter ethnic bigotry, cultural imperialism, raw hatred, bare-knuckled fist-cuffs and crude incitement spewing and flowing in the social media like putrid puss. Users have ignorantly and arrogantly let down their guard to engage in cyber fights that are as destructive as they are immoral and criminal.
Our engagement online is like a baboon with a loaded gun, or better still, a mischievous monkey driving a truck down a busy street!
Yet, these actions executed at the safety of your desk or bed, are likely to land you in hot water. And so, today, the cybercrime desks worldwide are abuzz in effort to track down the criminals who thought virtual is intangible. Organisations, families and friends are also upping the ante in dealing with carelessness online.
Are you aware that 13 Virgin Atlantic crew members once branded passengers as ‘chavs’ and mocked the airline’s safety on their Facebook pages, were heavily punished? The airline took action against the 13 on the premise that their behaviour was totally inappropriate and that they brought the company into disrepute.
And I bet you didn’t know this either: that a 33-year old science teacher, in the UK, who posted semi-naked pictures of herself, with her face smeared in lipstick, on Facebook, was suspended.
Even locally, such cases involving the high and the mighty teem our court corridors.
This just shows that your criminal and immoral actions on the social media has ramification that may leave you regretting the rest of your life.
With massive usage, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter being the leading, it means that with a click of a baton, you can create or break your fortunes. A statement, whether false or true, spirals like a virus gone untamed.
The cyberspace opened a new world of free transmission of content. The problem with the cyber, as opposed to the traditional mass media, is that it lacks moderation. The freedom and near-free platform that the cyberspace offers, is now posing a big headache to society as it were.
But as an employee, a potential job seeker or a consultant, or even entrepreneur, your statements can easily be tracked. For instance, any fairly intelligent Human Resource practitioner will always carry a quick Google search about you. Thus, all the postings you make will pop up. The recruiter will quickly make conclusions about your attitude, intellectual capacity, character, morals and philosophies. Often, fair and focused employers will never touch someone whose fingers have caused embarrassment or pain online.
Such dirty tricks include simple and seemingly innocent ‘likes’ of comments that are derogative to the next party, to a whole passage of how you hate certain people. Some of us even foolishly describe how we hate our bosses our lecturers or our husbands, friends and parents. I have never known any kind of idiocy that beats this.
I always argue; if you have beef with someone, whom you cannot confront, for you to relieve your rage and frustration, write a long letter, calling that chap all sorts of names under the sun, then tear it. Better still, if you feel energetic enough, it safer to confront a tree in your compound and punch it till you have no more energy.
Otherwise its time to circumcise that finger.