What does ‘social media’ mean to you? A number of times I have had to explain to my mom that I wasn’t just ‘pressing phone’ but was actually working or learning. She often looks at me with the wariness one might give a previously mad man when one catches him soliloquising and he insists that he is very much sane. Really what does social media mean to you? For some, it is a way to unwind and laugh after a long and stressful day, while for others, it is a cause of their depression as they begin to measure their happiness against the amount of followers or likes they have. For some, it is a way of communication with family and friends, while others see social media as a way to advertise their brand or business, raise awareness on a particular social issue or create a name for themselves. One needs not to be told how tectonic social media is to our generation. From social media experts to public relations officers, it has definitely created employment opportunities in areas that were nonexistent for previous generations. Even the methods of employment have changed with the advent of online interviews and business meeting conference calls. Some employers now require that you are an active user of social media.
My major concern for the New Age is: Are we really using social media as a tool to make new waves for ourselves or do we just spend time fawning over slay queens and arguing over who is a better player between Messi and Ronaldo? It is important for us to realise that social media to us should not just be a place for bants and mundane conversations. I texted a friend in London yesterday. Some twenty years ago, this was impossible. Now just imagine how far your music, writing, painting and so on could go if you decided to apply social media as a tool for marketing yourself to the globe. Do you know how many writers owe their fame and literary careers to the blogs they own? And what about learning? The methods of learning have changed. One doesn’t need to sit in the conventional classrooms anymore with a white board and marker before one can learn. I have. watched two psychology classes taught in a lecture hall in Yale from the comfort of my house in Lagos just by clicking play on YouTube. Do you know you could learn a language, how to bake, how to write, how to play an instrument, photography, video editing, coding etcetera all from social media. An amazing makeup artist that I met told me she didn’t attend any beauty school. She learnt from YouTube and other professionals whom she met on other social media platforms and kept on practising till she became the expert she is today. This is the New Age. Your brain needs to work like a clock. You mustn’t be satisfied with what you’re being taught in your classroom alone.
Social Media is not something that one should ignore and classify as a distraction. Of course, I am not oblivious to how toxic it can be and how sometimes, one does need to take a step back for a while. But let us, like the way our fathers used postal letters and stamps as a way of transmitting information, apply social media as a tool for learning and transmitting information. I read a recent report that stated that most people now, get their news from social media and not from newspapers and radios like before. So what are you waiting for? Wake up! Smell the morning coffee and realise things have changed. Realise that you could sell your entire album online without belonging to a record label. Realise that you could advertise your business without printing any flyers. Realise that you could publish your book without the name of any publishing house.
I think it succinct to end this piece by saying use social media as a way to connect with friends and family, as a way to laugh and banter, but also remember to use social media as a way of learning and ‘selling your market’(in Chigul’s voice).
