NIGERIAN YOUTHS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

The first question of this discuss is: who is the Nigerian youth? We may not need to talk at length or write an epistle before we know who a Nigerian is; simple, a citizen of the country created by the British around the rivers Niger and Benue confluence. But who a youth is in this country may take a little bit of a twist as we have a number of social and religious “youth” clubs with most members in their 50s and 60s. The story gets pathetic when the government, in its infinite wisdom, appoints a man in his 60s also to head a youth organization. Many political jamborees have been put up by purported party youths composed of family men and women. The physical definition of who a youth is has become more of a challenge than imaginable; yet, certain things distinguish a class of people.
In the not-so-long past, the range of people who “ran things” (on this side of the world) politically, socially, financially and other wise were indeed the grown and old ones. In the days when ten-year-olds got into primary one and you could not get into the university until about twenty-five, there was no real opportunity for the young to express themselves in certain fora not to talk of contributing their quota to the way they were been governed. But in the wake of the internet revolution, a lot of things changed simultaneously. First, there came a means to draw a line between the youth and the youth. The very nature of the internet itself fascinates only the curious, exuberant and agile, qualities found almost exclusively within an age bracket. Still on the nature of this strange stranger, the seeming complexity of it could not have been more than a job which an idle generation picks to sulk upon while it waits for table of age and leadership to be turned on it. The internet was one of those toy innovations with probably no real future. It just turned out to be the pad on which the (real) youth would be launched into his/her rightful place in time.
In the same vein, several innovations and job opportunities sprang up from the hitherto dormant and lifeless generation who could not live free of the umbilical cord maliciously tying it to the aprons of a (consciously or unconsciously) suppressive generation. Website development and ownership, superluminal messaging and communications and other related activities became (almost) an order of the day. In this new wave of development, the socio-political leadership was almost always shot out, the youth was getting a new definition and was beginning to take up challenges.
As a derivative of the internet, the social media has also come to grace the stage of enlightenment, education and activism. Innovations such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Talk et c. have improved the way and costs of communication, business and governance amongst other things. Today, the social media gives every individual a leverage with which they can participate in and influence policy making. This is obvious by the fact that an obnoxious law to criminalize social media activism and criticism is currently been considered in the Nigerian National Assembly.
The fact that the Nigerian youth has a lot of ends to meet on every front cannot be over-stated, and the role of the social media in this cannot be underrated. Academically, it is no longer news that the country’s education sector has sunk beyond the imaginable and all hands need to be on deck to revitalize it. One of the youth’s contributions to this is to harness every opportunity to improve his/her intellectual capacity by connecting with people, not only in the country but also across the globe. What are the best candidates for this exploit if not the social media? Students around the world can now meet and exchange ideas in their related fields and other areas of interest.
Economically, as stated above, the business horizon and job opportunity of individuals have been widened by the internet and particularly the social media. People now make money through their online presence via various means: advertisement for instance. Funny enough, you can even get a job just as a social media manager to someone or a cooperate body.
If we want to know how the social media can be used to influence governance, one just has to look back at the Arab spring which began in Tunisia in 2011 and is still on-going for the most part in Syria, and the part played by social media activists and bloggers. There are currently arguments in some quarters that the anti-socialmedia-criticism law been considered by the Nigerian National Assembly is an attempt to prevent an imminent “African spring”.
On the whole, there are limitless opportunities which the social media has presented before the Nigerian youth, but a little caution needs to be exercised at some juncture. Starting with security issues. Be very careful on how you relate and respond to requests, invitations and fund transfer because the cyber space has also become a haven for people with nefarious characters with intentions, but not limited, to defraud. Time management also comes to play here. It has been discovered that a lot of young people spend the better part of their time on social media without adding real value to themselves. This is where you have to answer the question of purpose; why am I on social media?
It is incumbent on the current generation of young people to make use of every opportunity available to things around for the betterment of the wider society; the social media is a veritable tool and weapon to achieve this aim. If missed, it may take several generations to be regained.