At the third annual Social Media Awards (SOMA) 2015, the main theme was social media empowerment. The level of embracing the new media especially among the young people is escalating to greater heights. Since the advent of 20th century, the media has been on a new revolution. We have realised a paradigm shift in technology and media has seen a great overhaul.
The number of social cites on the web surpasses the incredible, thanks to great minds in innovation. Some novelty has been realised throughout all those ages. In lieu of travelling everywhere in information seeking, a characteristic of older forms of media has changed the lifestyles of individuals- the youth- who spent considerable amount of time on the net.
Everybody is shaken by that impulse prompting action to adhere to that pressure.
In this new era, the use of the new media is seen as a necessity; short of using it is perceived as ‘insanity.’
Yes we have embraced it to the maximum and we are always online on these media platforms, but do we learn something valuable? How significant are they in changing our lives to rich civic life or it is just for the purposes of relenting to the pressure mounted on us by the impulse?
We do own the media and deliberately interested in it with alacrity and what do we have to show as the benefit of all these? Is there any essence of these media sites taking control of our lives? The new media provides opportunity for e-publishing and we have great writers in our midst, but how many have we read?
Are we not capable of e-governance as the western world does and all these furors of incompetence in governance will be like history?
We have vibrant ideas that we can share through this sites that can change the way we are governed instead of entertainment as the main reason why we log into our accounts.
How many institutions of higher learning in Kenya that have embraced the e-learning, I guess there is none and if there is any the results are countable and how many institutions do we boast of?
We are still in the old days of 100 per cent teacher-student interaction for the whole process of learning and this contrasts to how we refer to ourselves ‘digital. Indeed, we are digital by just word of mouth - short of rational to think and make maximum use of technological innovations in us. We are short of wits if our social media sites are marred with hate speeches and tribal insults, this leaves a story to be told of our level of unity. It is an interaction site not to showcase the levels to which we are tied to our political and tribal affiliations. It startles to experience the rate at which we use Facebook and Twitter to propagate the retrogressive ethnicity in us.
This is an attribute we have to develop - use new media as a unifying factor- and cease from hatred and ethnic vile, which haemorrhages our level of sanity.
Trying to copy from the western civilised world, administrative reforms are the order of the day, which are watchdogs’ agencies and strategies that check the excess and monitor the behaviour of individual at the helm of leadership.
Every individual is after best quality leadership and governance and with ICT where everything is just a click away, it gives everyone an opportunity to criticise the excesses of leaders. Positive critique free from personal grudges or hatreds can be enhanced by the use of e-administration.
In the area of business, we only conversant with OLX and classifieds as online dais that are up to task in that business sector but stiff competition is a characteristic of a healthy economy.
We can do more, we can innovate more with the technological devices we poses. We are to move with the revolution and better our lives as a new generation that sees light at the end of the tunnel.