Social media, the digital forest of mediocrity

You may have watched a startling video that has been widely shared on social media which, in my reckoning, came straight from the handbook of bad parenting.

In the video, a little boy of about six has a childish fit of rage, apparently demanding a sip of the tipple. Yes, booze. And not just any booze, but some brand of a strong dark frothy stout.

Perched on a plastic seat in what appears to be a roadside tavern, the sheer temerity of the little lad is astounding.

From the way he refuses to be cajoled by a bottle of water, with repeated swipes of his hand, to the way the beer bottle suddenly pacifies him when he finally has his way, he clearly knows the difference between water and alcohol.

It is absurd the way the adults behind this misdemeanour seem to enjoy letting the minor indulge himself.

I am not quite sure if the video was shot in Kenya, where the age limit for purchasing, let alone drinking, alcohol is 18 years. Wherever it was shot, someone was breaking the law with impunity, for I am yet to hear of a country that has legalised drinking of alcohol for six-year-olds.

What is most sickening about the video is not the adults’ willingness to abet an infantile travesty, but the thoughtlessness that went into broadcasting their idiocy to the whole world by recording and posting the video on social media.

Which brings me to my point. For all the convenience that has come with social media, every day, it seems, there are those who are more than willing to stick out their necks by posting or sharing dumb texts, videos, or audio messages.

The level of thoughtlessness that some people exhibit while rushing to make profane posts on social media is baffling, even suicidal, in some instances.

And for some reason, here in Kenya, sex, debauchery, and negative ethnicity clearly rank high among the silliest online posts you will ever come across.

What would motivate someone to incriminate himself with demented posts, such as the ones we have been lately treated to on social media, of, say, men shamelessly glorifying sex with children?

Apparently, there are many voyeurs, rapists, paedophiles, and perverts out there. Sadly, or perhaps fortunately, the allure of social media keeps flashing them out of their hideouts.

But such folly, it seems, is not confined to this part of the world, if the case of some mayor in a tiny town in the US who recently lost her job for applauding a racist comment about American First Lady Michelle Obama is anything to go by.

What English-born author and digital media entrepreneur Andrew Keen calls “an endless digital forest of mediocrity” is here with us.

In his book The Cult of the Amateur: How Blogs, Myspace, YouTube and the Rest of Today’s User-generated Media Are Killing Our Culture and Economy, published in 2008, Keen makes a sound argument on the perils of user-generated free content and how it threatens our values, economy, innovation, and creativity.

He further argues that the anonymity that the new media offers calls into question the reliability of the information we receive and creates an environment in which sexual predators and identity thieves can roam free. 

Were it not for the fact that he is an authority in Silicon Valley, Keen’s views would have possibly been dismissed as the inane outburst of a person caught in a time warp.

Needless to say, the benefits of the new media far outweigh the demerits, yet a smartphone in hand is not a licence to spew the kind of profanity that we have become accustomed to.

The writer is a sub-editor for the Daily Nation. [email protected]