It is no longer news that over 60% of Nigerian youths are active user of social media, which comprises of Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram etc. This various platform has diverse content and give different gratification and satisfaction to different users depending on what he/she is using it for.
Social media as we may know is a home of all other traditional media and thus it level of audience is very high and comprises of people with different level of demography and psychography. Social media which has been one of the fastest medium of passing out information to the general public has become a home of fake news because of the FIRST TO POST SYNDROME characterized by it user.
The desperation to become the first person to break an information has given birth to uncountable fake news. The traditional means of verifying an information before it is passed to the general public is no longer used because there’s no regulatory system. Since everyone can access Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media from their comfort zone they tend to post content for their audience without verifying whether the news/ content is factual or not. We have had series of fake news originating from social media, ranging from political issues, sports, religion to mention but a few. It has become part of many social media user to be seen as the first carrier of News, they want their audience to see them as been updated, this has become the driving force stopping them from verifying their news before posting. The nature of people handling the social media is so poor to the extent that we no longer scrutinize our information to know if it is news worthy or not.
This syndrome has also led the general public into a confused state during the money scarcity saga. We saw how different information concerning the deadline and which currency note to use as legal tender have been circulating claiming to come from the CBN but eventually the CBN denied it. This information happens to spread fast because we repost what we see without scrutiny and this have led all of us into a confused state of what to believe or not. Also, a number of tweets claiming to come from Governor Yahaya Bello’s official handle was circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp telling Mr President not to involve in the election of Kogi state. This was also denied after alot of people reposted it.
The first to post syndrome has eaten into the media’s source credibility thereby making the audience doubt information coming from the professional firm because the general usage of social media has resulted into increase in the spread of fake news which is one of the problem leading Nigeria into a mirage. The authenticity of News coming from the conventional media is no longer held in high regard because the amount of fake news on social media have disorganized the minds of the audience.
Fake news is harmful to the society, let’s take time and verify our message before posting. Shun the attitude of FIRST TO POST SYNDROME.
– David Scholastica Folasade
Student of Mass Communication,
Prince Abubakar Audu University Anyigba, Kogi State.
