SOCIAL MEDIA; FRIEND OR FOE?

SOCIAL MEDIA; FRIEND OR FOE?

(Ethics and Etiquette of Social Media)

I came across the story of a young lady, whom was in love with a guy, and needed the father’s blessings on the relationship such that the two could get married. The post goes this way, “Dad, I’m in love with a boy who is far away from me, I am in Lagos and he lives in Onitsha. We met on a dating website, become friends on Facebook, had long chats on Whatsapp, he proposed to me on Skype and now, we have had two months relationship through Viber. Dad, I need your good wishes and blessings.” I was amazed with the Fathers reply which reads, “Wow! Really!! Then get married on Twitter, have fun on Wechat buy your kids on Amazon and send them to me through Paypal and if you fade up with your husband…sell him on Ebay”.

In our contemporary era, the world is faced with the evolving cultures of modernity. And according to David Wells, the ubiquity of choice is among the most profound characteristics of modern times. We are faced with many alternatives where our forefathers had a few. Thus, we can now choose among various professions, religions, habitation and so on. Similarly, our pace has been fast-tracked by cars, airplanes and trains, such that one can sleep in Suleja today to wake up in USA the following day.

The overwhelming and influencing development seem to have been rooted in Information Computer Technology (ICT) world, which has broken the barriers of time and space that one could say that the world has become a global village.

However, it is quite unfortunate that these developments are coming with new values and with them new crisis, such that in the world we are today, we are being held captives by the dictatorship of relativism, the strangling holds of materialism and the deceptive tone of liberalism giving birth to Godlessness and moral confusions. Man has become the measure of all things (as the Ancient Philosopher Protagoras propagated), as the cloak of Christianity has been thrown away and the inner garment of morality torn. Thus, God is been divorced in everything as commercialism is being introduced in everything.

The youths of our time are very much concerned with things that appeal to the eyes; satisfy the flesh and hedonistic lifestyles (life of pleasure). Hence, nudity has become a norm rather than an exception. Sexual revolution is now the order of the day, as pornography, sex doll etc has gotten more patronizers than ever. Virginity is now seen as lack of opportunity and no more virtue. In the face of all these moral decadence, life has lost its meaning and dignity. That is why many nations are at war, people maim their fellow human beings without compunction. Violence and terrorisms seen everywhere, in fact, we seem to have gone back to what Thomas Hobbes called “The State of Nature” characterized by “The war of all against all”.

The people propagating this anti-life culture embrace every opportunity to sell their ideas and attract followers. Our media and particularly the social media which are those sites that enables users to create and share contents and participate in social networking, seems to be the most infiltrated aspects of these developments in the forms of post, adverts and clips. They have done this in the name of condom and contraceptive advertisements, the chants on the positive values of abortion, pornography materials and lots more.

Quite unfortunate, that these sites are being patronized mostly by the most vulnerable of the society, the youth, who lack the experience and the patience to evaluate the information that come their way very adequately.  This is why these sites have been used effectively by dissident groups to foster troubles and promote terrorism. And with the contraceptive mentality and sexual revolution today, such sites have been turned into “sex market” where sex hawkers come to display their products. These could be seen in various Facebook pages and groups.

The worse is that social media has distorted peoples idea of  the true meaning of relationship as it has wiped away the human feeling of direct human interactions. Thus, brothers and sisters would prefer to discuss their family issues on Whatsapp than meet face to face. Friends and classmates share all their views and conclude their plans on Facebook group chat than make out time to have a one to one meeting. As the story in the beginning show, the dating sites have become a preferable medium for hooking up and choosing life partners. Yet, majority of users uses profiles with exaggerated and false identity. No wonder they end up being hurt.

Patronisers of these sites spend most valuable time and life on these sites. We see students chatting during lectures, workers spending valuable office hours at the sites and church men and women chatting during liturgical celebrations. Some spend late night on these sites when they should be resting and get ready for the next day activities. They end up failing exams, and other endeavours due to poor concentration.

I now pause to ponder how we can get better of these developments in social media and live more humanly. It gives me great concern because I cannot deny the fact that social media, has made communication easy and have been employed by the church, government, groups and individuals to inform the faithful and citizens rightly. But what about those ravaged by the wrong use of social media? We cannot leave them behind.

Pope Benedict XVI invites all Christians to embrace the development in the social media and use it effectively for the spread of the gospel. In his message for the 45th World Communications Day, “I would like then to invite Christians, confidently and with an informed and responsible creativity, to join the network of relationships which the digital era has made possible. This is not simply to satisfy the desire to be present, but because this network is an integral part of human life. The web is contributing to the development of new and more complex intellectual and spiritual horizons, new forms of shared awareness. In this field too we are called to proclaim our faith that Christ is God, the Saviour of humanity and of history, the one in whom all things find their fulfilment (cf. Eph 1:10). The proclamation of the Gospel requires a communication which is at once respectful and sensitive, which stimulates the heart and moves the conscience; one which reflects the example of the risen Jesus when he joined the disciples on the way to Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:13-35). By his approach to them, his dialogue with them, his way of gently drawing forth what was in their heart, they were led gradually to an understanding of the mystery.”

As we meditate on the words of the Pontiff, lets us all help in rescuing the social media from the hands of anti-life terrorism, moral depravity and atheistic fallacies as we embrace the gospel message of authentic human relationship shown through love, truthfulness and decency. It begins with you as an individual through your post, and comments. We should embrace authenticity, transparency and communicate honesty while using the media. Transparency is essential, in business and in life. Ethically speaking, you should always share information that you feel will help others. It is a demonstration of good etiquette if you tell the truth, even if and when it is difficult. It is good to use the social media to spread message and air your views and ideas, but we have to be mindful and careful of our approach, and what we post.