The internet is a place of making. Perhaps the most notable importance of the internet today is that through it, the world has become a ‘global village’ of some sort. Prior to the arrival of the internet, information was not readily and easily accessible as it is today. Indeed, the hallmark of the twenty first century is what I like to call ‘accessible information’. Fortunately and unfortunately, there is no restriction to information available.
Just like drug abuse, the internet can also be abused. Internet abuse exists in many forms. These many forms includes; spending long hours on needless chat and filling the head with irrelevancies. What more? The internet accompanies a lazy man to wherever.
Already, records of its dangerous effect is not in the secret. This is why it is important to draw a thin line between internet use and internet abuse. One of the dangers of internet abuse is that it leaves a permanent dirt. Drawn by the urge for fame and other needs, one Etinosa Idemudia had to deal with a very bitter taste in the hands of social media users. What was her crime? On the 16th of March 2019, a video of her appearing drunk and nude went viral. All attempt to erase the bad record already created by the video failed. Today, Etinosa Idemudia is majorly recognized around the world from the standpoint of bad influence.
Twitter and Instagram are veritable social media platforms where information is disseminated and accessed. However, it is not uncommon to find very offensive trend. From #SilhouetteChallenge to #BedroomChallenge. A click on any of these trends and you had find a good number of individual wasting away precious time on.
In the #Silhouette challenge for instance, females are required to make a short video clips while putting on a bedroom gown. The covert intent of this trend is to arouse sexual feelings. Ironically, those who participate in such trends are not aliens but young adults from within our environment. While this may seems to be the hint thing for now, it should be known also that no person of worth and a great deal of decency will ever consider going public with bedroom affairs.
I tell you a quick story. One fine Sunday morning, Ade woke up feeling really lazy. With no real plans for the day, he resorted to his phone viewing pictures and videos online. However, a particular picture had caught his attention. It was a picture of a young man clad in a northern attire with an inscription at the bottom which says “APC to the world”. Ade quickly joined the bandwagon by commenting. His comment goes thus; “Ode, Buhari’s errand boys”. The next day, Ade was at his work place when his boss walked in angrily. “You’ve got some gut young man, how on earth did you end up calling Alhaji Isa an errand boy?” At that instance, Ade realized his mistake but it was already too late to cry. That comment caused Ade his job. While it is a good thing to occasionally comment, the bible says of a fool; when he keeps quiet he is also considered wise.
On a final note, the internet is a place of making and also a place of breaking. The choice to make or to break is ours. More importantly, a person who wants a good future will guard whatever he vomits jealously. We never can tell who is out there to dig out stuffs.
– Olayinka Kayode Kingsley
Email : Olayinkakayodekingsley@gmail.com
