Social media and keyboard warriors 

By Opeyemi Kareem

The advent of social media has provided a façade for many people around the world. They hide behind the keyboards entertaining an array of vices, making society worse. Behind the tweets, snaps, comments and stories are people who believe that their online lives and reality are far apart and as such, they do as they please. These people enjoy internet anonymity, so they make these posts knowing there will be little or no consequence.

There are many stories of how people have been duped of their money or tricked into giving private information through catfishing (creating a fake online personality specifically to lure people and get something from them). With social media, you cannot really know the fingers behind the texts until there is face-to-face interaction. People have lost money, been blackmailed and even kidnapped because of this. Catfishes hide behind social media to do what they do without fear of being caught because in reality, how can you find a person that does not exist

Have you ever come across posts online that criticize a habit you have or make you feel bad for things you do and don’t do? Do you know it is likely that the fingers behind such posts are doing the same thing they are criticizing? This non-verbal communication that social media provides enables some hypocrisy – a ‘pot calling the kettle black’ situation. Social media hypocrites use social media to create a smokescreen of who they aren’t in real life. The double standards, the unnecessary fake life and all other forms of two-facedness thrive on social media platforms.

There is a term given to twitter users who use their platform to harass and disrespect others – trolls. Some individuals use social media as a tool for cyber bullying and harassment of fellow users. These people target celebrities, media influencers or regular users just for the fun of it. They send threats, hurl insults and the likes. In reality, their bark is bigger than their bite. They know that but they take advantage of the fact that social media is not face-to-face communication.

An example is the recent issue between superstar Davido and a twitter user. @Mista_Mdee made unflattering comments about the musician’s little son, and after it generated an outrage he removed the post. Another example is the amount of hateful comments and posts about singer and dancer Korra Obidi following the announcement of her divorce and other events relating to her family.
Everyone is familiar with the constant hate, disrespect and bullying Toke Makinwa and DJ Cuppy receive on social media. Even celebrities are human and are impacted like everyone else by cyberbullying and can suffer depression, anxiety, stress and low self esteem from all the cyberbullying.

Should stricter policies be put in place? Recently, the government lifted the twitter ban and even before then, other platforms also have their guidelines. However, it did not make the internet a safer and less toxic environment. In a small survey, social media users expressed their opinions about making the social media space safer for users.

“The answer to this question lies with the individual. There are already policies put in place to ban some activities. Posts on the media are not by the government, but by the people. So only people can make it safer for other people.” – Kiishi

“It can be made safer if restrictions are in place. Any small mess up, seize the account. The bullying is too much and the hypocrisy. Same people that will say be kind are the same people that will bully others.” – Abayomi

“Social media can’t be controlled. Even with the twitter ban, didn’t people still access twitter? The best thing to do is just be stricter with app guidelines.” – Bola

Although there are many positives to the advent of social media, it is undeniable that the negatives are on the rise. If not curtailed, these negatives can devour the morals of the society faster than you can say Jack Robinson.

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