Reflection

melchi5801@gmail.com
www.melchijp.blogspot.com

SOCIAL MEDIA AND MORALITY

BY: NWABUISI JOHNPAUL

INTRODUCTION

We live in a world dubbed ‘digital.’ A world characterized by technological advancements, scientific innovations. Information is made accessible and it is disseminated in fraction of seconds to all and sundry. Virtually all spheres of disciplines, groups, organizations and individuals are not lagging behind in this regard as they make ample use of these innovations in making their lives sociable, running of their daily activities, in breaching  the barrier of distance in communicating, in responding to the so –called global village which the world has fomented into. Amidst all these, the social media has a predominant feature as it has engulfed a large percentage of the world’s population. This is made explicit in the various forms of ‘chatting links’ be it; Facebook which is a leading figure, Whatsapp of  which Mark Zuckerberg has finally bought, Twitter, Telegram, Instagram, Snapchat, et cetera. Obviously, the role of social media cannot be over emphasized in our burgeoning world today; it has come to stay. It is not difficult to see as even in gatherings, symposiums, discussions, you see people itching to check their Facebook, Whatsapp or Instagram as the case may be.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

With the morass of falsification of identity, character assassination, sexual immorality and the philosophies of relativism, hedonism, liberalism, secularism, subjectivism, inter alia, placarding themselves through the instrumentality of the social media, the moral rectitude of the world is being questioned. This has raised a major concern for some moral scholars as there have been debates, arguments as to if the social media has brought more harm than good to our society, as to if there are certain professional ethics needed in the use of the social media, if the social media has been abused for the purpose to which it was fashioned, if there are still objective truths in certain moral principles common to every culture. This has become a perennial issue, as this piece aims at an exposition of social media and morality, with the aim of examining the positive and negative influences of the social media on the moral sense of our world and proffer pragmatic responses to meet up the challenges of the social media on the morality of the world.

SOCIAL MEDIA

The social media is a section of the media which is designed to foster flow of rapid information, promote communication between people across the different strata of society. It involves the various aforementioned social media sites; they are usually fashionable, and trendy that it captures the attention of people; young and old.  A lot of advancements have been made on them in recent times, to help build that communication, For instance, some persons prefer a video call to a regular phone call. People are able to communicate with the outside world.

MORALITY

Morality on the other hand involves morals, behaviors of human conduct. For the modern philosopher Immanuel Kant, morality entails having the right attitude, motive, and acting out of right reason. It implies that we should do the right thing from  a good motive, a tutors’ motive for teaching should be to impart knowledge to the students and not earn his/her salary, for Kant if the tutors’ motive is for the salary then his action of teaching has no moral value, except when he tutors with the right motive. Some scholars have argued on the relativity of morality; stating that moral actions are determined by a particular group of culture or society, thus what is acceptable in a particular culture may not be acceptable in another culture. It is a pity that today many persons tread on such thought pattern and agitate for some form of moral standards which are not congruent to our fundamental moral feat, to suit their own whims and caprices. However, a major loop hole on this thought pattern is that if morality is relative then some practices like slavery, infanticide, rape, ritual should be termed good, if acceptable to a particular society. This draws our consciousness to the fact that there are certain primordial principles, like honesty, right to life, justice and the likes that are generally acceptable in all societies, thus the hysteria of some immoral standard of life should be halted with due respect to those concerned, it is a matter of choice. What is good is good; we should strive to that which is good. These basic principles have their objective values, whether people want them or not.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA AND MORALITY

The relationship between social media and morality is that of an influence; social media is a key factor in the nurturing of morality of the society as people are greatly influenced by what they see and hear.  Thus, the media has a strong, social and cultural impact on the society.

POSITIVE INFLUENCE

A positive influence would be that it has brought together strange bed fellows, enabling them to share their cultural and social experiences. This helps to expose people to the outside world and how to plan strategies to fit in such environments if they find themselves them, it builds their tolerance for one another and even get very intimate; leading to marriage in some genuine cases, communication is further strengthened, the barrier caused by distance is broken, meeting of renowned dignitaries that people would ordinarily not meet cheaply, and connecting with old and cherished friends. This has aided most business and organizations in their daily transactions making work so swift and stress free. Hence, social media enhance social interaction globally.

          Furthermore, information is made available. With the speed of light, social media aids the spread of information over a wide range of persons. If a bombing or abduction is to be done at a specific location and someone hears about it, between the twinkle of an eye, the information is disseminated and people become sensitized, those leading to futility of the plan to bomb or abduct. It is also helpful to classmates as groups are created and lecture notes can be dispersed to all. So, opening up vistas of information and ideas to people; keeping them current and up-to-date.

Additionally, in the evolving of the modern era of philosophy, Francis Beacon equated Knowledge with power. This implies that when one is knowledgeable you are said to be powerful. Through judicious use of the social media, people are availed with the opportunity to grow their minds intellectually and fill their reservoir of knowledge as ideas are shared amongst peers, constructive criticisms are made, and knowledge therefore, can be perceived in the sense of intellectual power which creates an ambience for creativity, learning culture, ingrained with moral values which develop the moral rectitude of such persons.

NEGATIVE INFLUENCE

Conversely, social media can be used by some persons to propagate their shoddy activities of character assassination, cyber-crime, fraudulent practices, offensive showcase of obscene pictures and literatures. This goes a long way in the moral decadence of societies. For whatever reason it is so, people tend to remember a bad experience than a good one more, situating it with the display of such pictures, it lingers on the mind of people more than good pictures. Sometimes, this is usually a hidden propaganda of some persons to destroy the sanity and serenity of our society. Immorality becomes glamorized and celebrated and each day they keep growing, the bad ones actually have more friends than those who trying to preserve the sanity of their society.

Another malaise is that of the falsification of identity. People are gradually losing touch with their personhood; ‘the real me or the real you,’ you see this evident in chats as some claim to be men and others claim to be women to gain money or cheap popularity. Some do things to imitate a musician, model, celebrity; trying to be like them and starve themselves to have a designated weight of the celebrity, forgetting that stories are different and people are sui generis. In case where, the celebrity has a bad habit, it becomes very easy for the person to learn and start displaying such unruly behavior to the society. So, if one is not able to meet up to these standards the person feels depressed and sometimes could lead to suicide.

Gradually, the social media has torn us apart despite its efforts to foster communication; the touch of a healthy communication is lost. It could be so annoying when you are in a conversation with somebody and all the person is doing is chatting and responding to your conversation. The attention to be given to people who make out time to visit us is no longer appreciated. We are addicted to social media which is not good, you see people driving and chatting, walking and chatting, and so on. People spend donkey years all in the name of chatting, statistics shows that youths spend seven hours on chatting Oh! What a waste of productive time. People are comfortable in their rooms as longs as they have their phones with them, what a sad story.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Nevertheless, all hope is indeed not lost as here are some recommendations to help peter out the negative influences of social media on the morality of the society. There needs to be a firm foundation of discipline from families, as they are the bedrock for the training and nurturing of a child. They need to be taught what discipline entails and why it is needed as it would help reduce the rate of our addiction to the social media and help us use our social media judiciously only for that which promotes good moral values. Thus whenever they are confronted with negative things, we would be confident on them picking the right choice.

People need to be sensitized on the need for their identity and how important it is to them. This will help build the self-esteem of these persons and come to appreciate who they are. Matthew Kelly in his book ‘Resisting Happiness,’ asserts that we should be concerned about build that talent which God has given to you and not being envious of another’s’ talent.

Virtue lies in the middle, Social media ethics should developed to help check mate some of the anomalies and excesses of some persons. This will help reduce the influx of pornographic contents on the social media and help in keeping safe the moral soundness of our community. This ethics need to stem from a universal theory which is applicable to all but may or may not be acceptable by all. This will help address the issues of fraudulent practices, character assassination, and the need to give attention to people in conversations.

CONCLUSION

Social media in itself is not something bad, but its aim is to promote good relationship amongst people, help disperse information very fast amongst many others. It becomes pertinent therefore, that if these recommendations are put to fruitful use, the anomalies we create and blame on the social media would be check-mated. Thus this discourse on social media and morality becomes very apt as it tries to address some issues bordering on social media and morality.  In an eon, where people have access to widespread of information, special care and attention needs to be given to the values and ideas, people absorb from the media. Remember, the social media enhances the moral standards of a society when used properly.