How social media influence politics, peace and war in South Sudan
6 min readMarko Mawien Mawien, Kampala, Uganda
August 22, 2016 (SSB) — In a good faith, I kindly urge the government of South Sudan to serve the country from the wide spread of tribalism by simply shutting down both Facebook and Twitter. It is because some people misuse those pathways but when it comes to those who used social media outside South Sudan, I think it can’t have much effects within the country. You know how they misuse them.
Telling the public lies and if the social media is shutdown then they will learn how to use them properly if they are reopened. I know it is ill advised if anyone shuts down or blocks social media. Social media has totally brought divisions among our people. It has increased tribalism and hatred in our beloved nation. The government has to do something to safe our country from being torn apart by a well-known disease which is social media.
All the service providers such as MTN, ZAIN and VIVACEL have to make sure that the SIM Cards are officially registered in order to help security personnel to thwart those who misuse social media for preaching tribalism and hatred in the country. This is my personal view as citizen of South Sudan. It must be treated as my personal opinion as normal citizen of the Republic of South Sudan. There are more negative impacts than positive outcomes which can be caused by social media in a young country like South Sudan.
These demerits have defragmented South Sudanese apart and has tarnished or portrayed the image of South as country to the outside worlds. As a country we needed to consider the following negative impacts of social media to our society.
These include;
- one of the negative effect of social media or network is it leads to addiction. Spending countless hours on the social sites can divert the focus and attention from a particular task. It lowers the motivational level of the people, especially of the teenagers and students. They mainly rely on technology and the internet instead of learning the practical knowledge and expertise of the everyday life.
- Kids can be greatly affected by these social networking sites if they are allowed to use them. The reason is that sometimes people share photos on social media that contains violence and sex, which can damage the behavior of kids and teenagers. It put the negative impact on overall society as these kids and teenagers involve themselves in crime related activities.
- Another downside of the social media is that the user shares too much information which may pose threats to them. Even with the tight security settings your personal information may leak on the social sites. Downloading your videos or pictures and copying your status is an easy task and can be done within few clicks.
However, there are also positives impacts of social media to the civil population and that was why I was quoted as saying before that “it is ill advised if anyone shuts down or blocks social media” and as you compare the negative impacts and the positive impacts of social media then the result is that it has more good parts.
The positive impacts of social media are as follow;
- Social networks help the businesses in a variety of ways: Traditional marketing mediums such as the radio, TV commercials and print ads are completely obsolete now and demand for thousands of dollars. However, with social media the businesses can connect with their targeted customers for free, the only cost is energy and time. Through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other social site you can lower your marketing cost to a significant level.
- The increasing popularity of social sites like Twitter, Facebook: and LinkedIn, social networks has gained attention as the most viable communication choice for the bloggers, article writers and content creators.
- These social networking sites have opened the opportunity for all the writers and bloggers to connect with their tech savvy clients to share your expertise and articles. Your audience will further share your articles, blog or expertise in their social circle which further enhance your networks of the followers.
- Social networks have removed all the communication and interaction barriers, and now one can communicate his/her perception and thoughts over a variety of topics. Students and experts are able to share and communicate with like-minded people and can ask for the input and opinion on a particular topic.
- Another positive impact of social networking sites is to unite people on a huge platform for the achievement of some specific objective. This is very important to bring the positive change in society.
As you read above, social media is more useful in the field of research and in business sectors but as we do here in South Sudan. We have turned social media as a battle field and a Centre of announcing victories. In South Sudanese have decided to use social media for telling lies and preach tribalism in the country, anyway, I can’t anyone much because our country gained independence at the time when Twitter and Facebook are introduced.
I recommend that we should use our rights well. Social media has come to stay, it has now become part of our basic needs hence it is not recommended to be shutdown. Those programmed social media are people of high integrity, they have studied higher and higher and so why can’t follow their past as South Sudanese youth to study information technology like these guys.
Computer technology is not all about having all the certificates in the field of information technology. You must at lease prove about 10% of the practical aspects. Most members on Facebook write and boost of so many certificates where in the case of practical aspects most cannot perform a simple windows installation or change ram on a desktop pc talk less of a notebook PC.
I think we all should concentrate more on the (skill) practical aspects than creating more c vs on the page without proves. If you don’t have any video to prove your skills, at least write a theory base on your experience in the field of technology. Let’s make information technology great for generations to come.
This is my suggestion to my colleagues whom we are pursuing the same goal. Let us make South Sudan great. Let us prove to the world that we can also something by our own.
The author, Marko Mawien Mawien, is a student from Bugema University of Uganda. He is a third year student pursuing Bachelor of Information technology
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