There is an ailment today called the social media headache, and it is something some people already have and some don’t know about yet.
Social media has been a blessing to many and there are even more people getting employed by just having social media pages.
However, there seems to be a lot about social media that many do not know or understand.
Social media has been called various things in the past and even presently. Some say it is not a real place, others say it is make belief.
Some people even call it a place where toxicity grows and breeds.
We should not forget though, that social media is also a place where information can be shared and lives can be changed.
Social media is now a huge tool in politics around the world, it has changed the course of some countries forever.
Till date, the US is still trying to figure out how social media was used to tamper with its election (if it actually happens, we do not know).
But, the recent headache especially in Nigeria is the use of social media by young ones to share their deepest thoughts.
We now see videos of young boys and girls either saying things or doing things that are either harmful or painful to watch.
Some put out contents that they believe is nobody’s business now, but will be in the future.
Perhaps they do not know the impact of this tool, they think it is just for fun, which it is most of the time.
However, while fun is going on, real things are also going on. A lot is happening at the same time and many would not know until it is too late.
This brings me to what is called digital footprint.
Digital footprint is the information of any person available on the internet due to their activity online.
This means everything you post either photo or text, video or audio, is a footprint you leave on the internet forever.
You might delete it later, but there are chances someone has taken a screenshot or saved it somewhere.
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We see it on Twitter every day, where someone comes years later to claim saint and suddenly a screenshot of the person’s previous tweet is flying around.
A typical example is Kevin Hart when he was about to host the Oscars.
This was a lifelong dream of Kevin, to host the Oscars, but his dream was shattered because of a tweet which he apologised for and even deleted.
That didn’t help his cause, he was not allowed to host the Oscars just because of a tweet.
This brings us to what needs to be done to contain this headache right now.
There needs to be a tutoring of some sort, not on the usage of social media but on the repercussions of actions.
Either for safety or to avoid future situations like the one that happened to Kevin Hart.
Social media is a huge tool, but it is also becoming a menace due to its usage by the next generation.
