Social media makes people drunk with hate

One of the greatest joys in today’s technologically advanced times is the ease with which one can communicate with friends and family in many ways. I can call, text, video chat, and send a message through WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and many other apps in phones, tablets and PCs.

Most of us use social media intensively, and sometimes even old folks like me who were born before the colour TV, fax, mobile phone, and all these wonderful widgets we take for granted today came into being, can hardly remember what times were when all these channels were non-existent. In many ways, social media has contributed to a better-informed society.

Most of us these tools to communicate our thoughts, life and social events or trivial stuff to family, friends and colleagues. Today anyone with a cellphone, tablet, or PC can send any message to any part of the world, and let the world know what they think, what they do, who they do it with, and so on.

The democratisation of communications has helped create a level of accountability and transparency in the public and private spheres that did not exist even five to 10 years ago. Companies get real time feedback on every aspect of their business from customers on social media, whether good or bad, and this feedback is also broadcasted globally. Governments get similar treatment from their citizens, and today every leader from presidents and prime ministers to all top officials continuously monitor and communicate through their social media accounts.

Therefore one can make a strong case that social media has been and remains a force for collective and individual good throughout the world. Sadly, the opposite case, that social media has been and remains a force for collective and individual evil, can also be made. Most, if not all, social media users have seen, been affected, been targets and recipients, or watched as bystanders or collateral damage as some of the most hurting, obscene, damaging, spiteful, inciting and dangerous posts are made in the networks and groups they belong to.

REDUCE PARTS

For some reason, using social media seems to reduce the parts of the brain and mind that affect restraint. Good manners, thoughtful action, careful speech, and consideration of the effect and consequences of one’s speech evaporate. As the fingers quickly type on the keyboards, people write things they would never say in person to individuals and groups they know intimately, or to perfect strangers. They use words and images that would be totally alien if they were having a face to face conversation. They respond with invective they would never use orally, and even purpose to hurt or even kill people they have never and will never meet.

For socially fractured societies, the negative use of social media is especially lethal. A terrifying illustration of this is the widely circulated but not confirmed story that a social media posting caused the loss of over 200 lives last week in Juba, South Sudan. The so-called Islamic State and al-Shabaab (to come closer home) make extensive use of social media to recruit, broadcast, and incite hate and terrorist attacks. Many hate groups and hate speech practitioners now use social media as one of their most important channels for broadcasting their evil agenda.

So, while social media has been and continues to be an enormously valuable platform for public good, it also continues to be the same for public harm. Somehow, for the rest of the 21st century, each country and society will have to figure out how to deal with this conundrum. The “great walls” that some countries are attempting to build in an effort to control social media will not work, nor will writing and passing into law tons of new regulations that are essentially unenforceable.

What could work is to understand that social media is now the most important form of communication globally for most people.  Many people today, especially the under 30s, these days form their convictions, ideals, norms, and personal and collective beliefs largely depending on which groups and networks they are connecting to on social media.

So just as we were taught from infancy on the etiquette of conducting and comporting ourselves in normal society, it is probably time we began teaching our children and young people on the etiquette of conducting and comporting themselves on social media. Our children and young folks need to know that they should not post on the social media what they would not say or write off it.

Sam Mwale is a commentator on social and public policy issues.