Terming Social Media Army Idlers is a Worrying Manifestation of Backwardness in Africa

 

Paul Kipchumba

Thursday 30 May 2019

From late last year I have witnessed a very challenging trend in the discourse in the social media where some proponents hammer it home that their citizens who are active online are the idle educated lot. In my view, they should be commended for embracing technology in a society where access to Internet is both problematic and a non-issue.

If our society shields duty bearers from doing the work in which they are paid and focus blame on private citizens who are voluntarily engaging in progressive discourse to advance the socio-economic space in their countries, then the society is very sick!

We should encourage our residents to move online to reduce the cost of doing business, ask them to do online business, and even shift all administrative functions including policing online.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industrialization 4.0) that is sweeping the world and is fundamentally technological, supported by Artificial Intelligence (AI), has a tendency to widen global socio-economic inequality. And over time the "social media idlers" will recreate another socio-economic inequality in our society because they are the only active citizens. The rest who pin hopes on the so-called "practical reality" are actually the most dormant and useless lot in Information Age. They hide a lot of deficiencies like computer or letter illiteracy by invoking "practice".

However, I understand that we need to industrialize and, for this matter, we need to make strategic industrialization choices: (1) physical industrialization, or (2) technological industrialization. Both require very advanced leadership and management. To remove illiteracy and ignorance among our people, then eliminate idleness, then reach them middle income status is an arduous task which will last through many generations.

Therefore, those who are not active in the social media are in the past already. Those who are active in the social media should keep advancing by embracing cutting edge technologies and rigorous learning. The difference between the two groups will be apparent over time.