By Captain Collins Wanderi via Facebook
Social media is a very powerful tool. The opportunities created by the virtual space are limitless. But it all depends on how you choose to use it.
1.You may elect to use this media to educate, inform or advance social causes that seek to change the life and circumstances of other people and/or your own. In this space you can also seek and interact with amazing people who you can hardly meet in real life. Perhaps this is why it is baptised “social”.
2. You can also use digital space to sniff, spot and create a business opportunity or exploit new frontiers for investment. My village mate and friend Kabu Simon and his best half Sarah Kabu have used social media to create a great enterprise that is now BONFIRE ADVENTURES AND EVENTS. Yet another friend Dennis Itumbi has exploited social media to create his own unique and unparalleled brand as a blogger.
3. You can also use social media to promote your great sense of self by posting updates and pictures of the house you live in; the car you drive, the clothes you wear, the school/university you attend(ed), what you do daily, the towns you visit, the kind of food you eat and of course the “important” human beings you meet in ordinary life. That is still something. My High School Social Ethics Teacher used to say many a times that, “modesty is not a deficiency” and that the opposite is also true!
4. You may also use media to publish and promote racial, ethnic, tribal and religious bigotry. That is also something. That may just make you an MCA, MP, Senator or even Governor one day. In Kenya all things are possible. Luckily, the fairly lethargic National Cohesion and Integration Commission is ever in permanent comatose. Unfortunately the digital footprints you leave on social media will follow you everywhere. Not everybody is that naïve.
5. You can also use this media foolishly and talk about your preferred political demi-god; other men and women, their political parties, ideas and beliefs every day. That is dumb, very amateurish, cheap and petty politics. If you think you matter so much to your friends or even to the men and women you talk about, and the parties they have formed and promoted with their own money, just form and fund your own political party, promote it and invite people to join. You may just become the next village/county/regional point man or woman. That will be a great ego trip for every political wannabe in social media. I suggest you consult Peter Kenneth before you embarking on this venture.
6. You can also seek to use this space to lament and complain about everything above the earth and below the sun; government, police, matatu drivers, politicians, neighbours, pastors, banks, service providers, schools, colleges, etc EXCEPT YOURSELF. That is still something. Perhaps viewing everything in this world through the prism of negativity and pessimism is now a full time job, unlike minding your own business.
7. You may elect to use cyber space as an unpaid amateur journalist and parrot about “breaking news”; people, accidents, sports events (especially EPL) and other things which your friends & followers can also read for themselves. That is also something. Pseudo-journalism may not take you far though; try comedy instead. It works better.
8. Finally you may also appoint to use this space to tell us how many affairs you have had; the men and women in your life; the number of heartbreaks you have had and who cheated or is cheating on you; who is having illicit amorous horizontal or vertical congress with who, how and where. We will urge you on and pretend to care or feel concerned while secretly and quietly we laugh at your folly.
NB: Do not ask me what I do in cyber-space. Focus on what I don’t. It matters more.
CONFESSION: I am a member of several trendy Social Media groups where people pour out their problems on a daily basis. Life has taught me this; the problems of other adults are perfect opportunities for me. Such is the #PowerofSocialMedia, pick your lane wisely.
Post a Comment