By Abdullahi Jamaa
This week, a dinner event organized and attended by social media activists from the Somali community of Kenya was the peak of my ten years of online presence, a deserving occasion to review the role of social media in my life.
While the overwhelming majority of Somalis are illiterate, the online craze, the allure of using social networking platforms like Facebook as well as micro-blogging site Twitter, among the educated has never been greater.
I have always been an ardent user of these networks that have transformed our access to information in a contemporary world that changes so fast. Social media has given us more information than we may need but it has also helped us understand the world around us more instantly.
News and information are no longer a preserve of mainstream media, citizen journalism has taken a center stage where stories from remote villages are told and reported on time, many times ahead of the national television stations.
Coming from a pastoral community that has been marginalized since independence and where access to information was so much censored, the entry of social media has opened up this unreported world to bring about stories that matter-the human stories.
On the sidelines of the dinner, I have learned with great passion, the positive stories that came with the proper use of social media, charting a new frontline in addressing community issues. By a tweet many souls were touched, by a post many lives were rescued.
With Facebook and Twitter, selfless online influencers have tapped into the community’s philanthropists, often amassing resources in a very short time to help address critical issues. The dignity of serving humanity is indeed invigorated.
Many of these noble initiatives that were placed and planned online are having profound impact raising philanthropic emotions within members of the community. A new sense of belonging is building; over-reliance on government means to address situations will soon diminish as many people join communal actions.
The role of the community in heralding its own future is taking some shape and form; the educated elites are realizing the need for a concerted effort to build a roadmap for sustainable development. This is a powerful indictment of how few but great interventions can be used to tackle issues.
Online activism is getting grounds in remote villages, human rights and gender-based violence are no longer hidden as it used to be the case before the inception of social media. Women and other vulnerable members are more empowered than ever before.
But as gallant online campaigners and activists are putting their best foot forward, many of the community’s ranks and files are propagating a barrage of online hate laced with concoctions of tribalism. Sadly many of our online hate mongers are well educated.
And as they say, information is power, too much information is also lethargic especially when contents are told with exaggerations, lacking facts and figures. Unfortunately, given the lopsided use of these platforms by the majority, social media is seemingly a malevolent sword.
Respect for leaders is diminishing by the day, personal and family privacy is no longer observed while demeaning insults are common features in many posts. The community’s social fabric is menacingly fraying at the edges – courtesy of the wrong use of social media.
The scale at which young men and women from the region are misusing networking sites is alarming. Breaking rumors and spreading lies against innocent people is the order of the day. Cyberbullying that involves intimidating messages, malicious rumors and embarrassing photos form the interest of many of our youth.
County employees serving the interest of their political masters misuse these platforms too. They engage in dirty tirade with the same people whom they are supposed to serve with dignity and respect knowing very well that they earn salaries because of them.
We have to acknowledge that social networking sites have become an established part of everyday life and they aren’t going away anytime soon. Therefore, it’s very important to use them appropriately to advance humanity.
Isn’t it the right time to review our use of social media?
