SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE

 

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE

(Influencers' edition)

Written By Michael Chidiebere Ituma

.Brother X comes online one beautiful morning. He is a social thinker, so called. He posts a philosophy of his own thoughts, his unprocessed ideas, with a beautiful picture attached to it. He posts it on his timeline on Facebook, and on every group he can lay his hands. Then he quickly goes to his WhatsApp status to share that same idea. 

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Brother Z comes online, sees the post of brother X and begins to nod to the idea of that philosophy. Brother Z reacts with the love button, drops a mind-blowing comment, copies same philosophy of thought, and reposts it on his own timeline and every group to which he belongs. His WhatsApp status is quickly updated with same idea. 

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Another person repeats the cycle, then another, and another, and another, until social media have had a lot of it. A lot just enough to keep memories fresh many years later. 

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Before much can be said or done, Brother X's idea has spread wide and far. It becomes archived in different formats. Joke makers turn it into memes (oftentimes in form of pictures). The internet also reserves it as 'memory' for forthcoming years. 

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Several years later, Brother X is married with beautiful kids. Much later, his beautiful children encounter social media in the course of learning. They begin to see things. They begin to learn things. They begin to blend minds with people from far and near. Social media will become a way of life for them, too. 

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One day will come when Brother X's children, Brother Z's children, and the children of every other social media subscriber who gave out one philosophy of thought or the other will come in contact with their parents ideas. Didn't the Holy Bible promise through God's words, to visit the sins of a father upon his children, even to his fourth generation?

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That idea of Brother X's from many years ago, it was not something that would add any moral value to the life of anybody. It was a random idea that was flying across and his mind caught it by occasion. But his children are here in the future. They are seeing his senseless idea from many years ago and are living it to the fullest. So are the children of every other social media Influencer.

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This is how our society finds itself in its present state of lawlessness. Children, youths, young adults, they are fed with varying ideas hanging loosely here and there on social media. A says this, B says that, C opines this, X proposes that. Confusion and commotion loom everywhere.

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Come even, to think of it, people who fabricate these ideas and forward them to the internet are naive people who have had little or no experience about life. They just wake up one morning, stumble over such ideas, then run along to show it to the world. 

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The ones who call themselves love doctors would preach love in such a way that those who are not in a premarital relationship would feel sorry for themselves. They would present premarital sex in such a way that it will be appealing to the younger generation whom of course are the target and make sure it sounds sinful not to be having sex as a teenager or a young adult. 

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These other ones who come online to defend suicide victims, claiming that the victims' years of frustrating experiences validate their actions (taking their own lives) are even worse humans in themselves. From them, the next suicide victims read things that will trigger wrong emotions and more suicides will be recorded. Why should the suicide victim be praised for committing suicide?... Question for the gods of suicide. 

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One idea after the other, over and on. This is how the world keeps learning new things that do not encourage moral upbringing. This is how the world has come to the place where students would take a gun to school just to retaliate or revenge a wrong done against them. Thanks to the so called, naive social thinkers. 

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Is it not because these teenagers and young adults have seen it in movies and have read it on the internet from the timelines of so called social thinkers? 

Is it not because they've been taught to f*ck haters up? 

Is it not because they've read from the timeline of a social thinker that life is all about revenge - "you do me, I do you?"

Is it not because they've seen and heard that one who doesn't speak up, whether or not they're in the position to speak up, is a coward? 

What's more? 

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Dear social thinker, social media personality, your children will see your posts someday. My children will see your posts someday. A depressed boy will see your post someday. An single person will read your ideas someday. It may not be directly from your timeline but from improvised sources. 

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The question is, when they do, will you be proud to be a father whose child will live according to the ideas (your own senseless ideas) learnt from social media? 

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What legacy are you leaving behind online? 

What will the next generation become off of your contents online? 

Remember our children will see those contents of yours someday and want to live by ideas inscribed therein. 

If you must dish any of your ideas out on social media, let it be that they would not trigger social vices and inhumane beliefs in generations to come. 

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These days, I read people's content from years ago and nod my head in agreement. This is because they are ideas that help me grow and I'll be happy that my unborn generations run into such contents and eventually learn from them, too. 

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Let's be guided. Let's spread useful contents. Let influence people positively. Next time, before you post, think about how your children will run into it many years ahead, and see if it would have any moral impact on them. 

I'm concerned about you. 

T  H  E    K  I  N  G    W  R  I  T  E  R

Michael Chidiebere Ituma