Star wars online

By Stevens Muendo and Matilda Nzioki

With the Chaguo La Teeniez (CHAT) Awards merely hours away, the hunt for votes among nominees has hit fever pitch high with the battle for voting fans taking the head-to-head campaigns to the Internet.

It has all turned into a virtual battle thanks to the social networking sites through which teens have already formed groups to support their favourite celebrities.

Many Pulsers spend most of their free time online and social networking sites are gradually shaping and tilting the local showbiz landscape and transforming lives among many of them.

Avril, the Ogopa signed-up newcomer who has been nominated in the category of the Best New Artiste is leading the onslaught with near fanatical fans jamming her Facebook page with "Vote for Avril" pleas.

Local youthful drama series Tahidi High whose stars have garnered four nominations has managed to woo hundreds of followers on their Facebook group in the build-up to the big annual awards ceremony.

Gospel Singer Allan Aaron of the Wi Mutheru fame had his status last week read in part, "...thanks to all those who are going to vote for me kwa groove award. Ur votes r ma chance. For those who have forgotten ni 1A send to 3336. God bless and am counting on u."

The craze is sparking beef among celebrities and especially nominees whose fans have triggered hate campaigns against each other. It’s a battle by the invisible whose winner may never meet their mobilised, loyal but virtual army of supporters.

Previous campaign strategies such as word-of-mouth and the use of leaflets have been overtaken by technology. In fact, online support may be all the ammunition a nominee needs to marshal their support towards winning the prestigious awards. It is all but a new world.

"If you are not on Facebook, then, you don’t exist," Brian, 17, told his mum recently.

They were in Mombasa on holiday and Brian was busy taking photos of the beautiful oceanic scenes on his mobile camera and posting them on his Facebook page where hundreds of his friends kept commenting on his updates.

He was on phone Facebook chat for the best part of the holiday and his mum could hardly understand the excitement her son was experiencing online.

During the recently held media conference, President Kibaki himself admitted the growing influence of Internet on our lives especially through social networking sites.

Pushed by curiosity, Brian’s mum joined Facebook and asked her son to accept her invite as a friend. He declined the request.

How on earth would Brian’s mum want to access his page, which comprises photos of semi nude girlfriends and sexually slanted posts? How on earth would he allow her to walk into his most guarded teen secrets of truancy and "stolen" virginity?

It was the same season when a story started doing rounds on the Internet about a man who got a Facebook friend request from a girl, only to start flirting with her later on. Unknown to him, this was his girlfriend who had opened another ‘fake’ account.

Online flirting

Their chat became regular, moving from mere acquaintance talks to romantic conversations. He offered to meet her in a city club one evening. He thought he had made a good catch for the night. And woe unto him, on arriving at the said club, he was speechless to find that he had been busted by his girlfriend — his erstwhile Facebook lover.

And it was just the other day when a major showbiz story broke out as two local celebrities who have been embroiled in relationship wars came fighting on their Facebook pages with the girl in question announcing their break-up.

The story was quickly picked up by paparazzi and it was quickly turned into a major sell in leading showbiz magazines.

Online social network sites have become the youth craze in urban Kenya. Facebook and Twitter have replaced the traditional online sites like Yahoo, MySpace and personal blogs. Constantly, young people are logging in, and creating fancy profiles in accounts through which they socialise with unmediated publics. It’s a new lustre of the cool and collected through which millions of infatuated youth search for partners and team up in groups of like-minded friends towards a common destination and causes unique to their mediated motives.

Online social networking among youth comes with expressions of coolness; a factor usually validated by "adored" friends like celebrities commenting on your page hence determining one’s connections.

Using innovative technology like impression pictures one can easily box himself or herself to the cluster in which they desire to socialise with. Page displays usually involve pictures and nicknames that link individual profiles where coded messages are exchanged through chatting parties via testimonials (MySpace) and my wall (Facebook)

With friends publicly articulated and profiles open for public viewing with every comment coming in accessible to all, strangers soon become friends while others turn lovers.

It is amazing to follow how the invisible audience regenerate through adding and deleting friends list as they search for their identity.

The online social network fad by Pulsers in Kenya leaves one posing numerous questions. Why the Facebook and Twitter infatuation? What’s so unique about Facebook friends that they can replace or complement "everyday partners?" How are social networks affecting and shaping the lives of the new generation?

But even with the ranging questions on how social networks are becoming a risk to the lives of young people, critics argue that what Pulsers are doing with this networked public is what they actually experience in every other type of public they have access to.

Virtual friendship

"I have fabricated my identity on Facebook and set barriers to any of my family members and close relatives from accessing my page. After all, online comes with some evil," says Mesh, 23.

"I have ‘met’ so many girlfriends via Facebook. I must admit, some of them are out there searching for partners and I have ended up sleeping with several. Its never about making serious friendship," notes Tom, 25.

Relationships are not the only thing that social networking sites have been used to take down. Persons in the entertainment industry have been in situations where they have hit rock bottom in their careers within a blink of an eye just because a ‘hate group’ was created against them.

One such person was Patricia Kihoro of Tusker Project Fame 3 for not saving Debarl. The fury that the public had towards her led to Facebook groups like "Sorry Patricia, but we won’t vote for you", and many other groups. To date, she is yet to convince the public otherwise, about her vote.

Apart from being utilised to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, these social networking sites are increasingly being used for campaign purposes and to spread propaganda. Movements for certain causes are formed, especially on hot issues. It is overwhelming how much these groups and pages influence people’s opinions and lead to mass lobby groups.

At the height of Esther-Hellon saga people turned to the Internet and especially Facebook to vent their disgust and contempt. Groups such as "Kenyans please pray for Esther Arunga", "Esther Arunga is bewitched" and "Save Arunga from Hell (on) cult" only fuelled the saga. In fact it was through these same social networks, Twitter to be precise, where the public got to learn about the infamous ordeal.

Nevertheless it’s not all doom and gloom. For some entertainers, these same online mini-forums and petitions have made them, rather than break them. At a cheaper or no cost at all, they have become the talk of town. Just A Band acquired a near cult figure heros, after several updates, groups and pages were created on the social sites. The next thing that followed everyone was ‘Googling’ to find out about the Makmende hullabaloo. With that, thousands of ‘makmende’ jokes emerge and the group is getting booked for shows every other weekend. At the height of the Makmende craze the group-registered hits in thousands every other minute.

"I saw Muthoni Ndonga online first and later got a hold of her music, wow, I don’t know if I would have been exactly interested hadn’t I come across Facebook groups heaping praise on her work," remarked a fan.

Event organisers and club managements have lately taken advantage of the popular Facebook wave in attracting fans and patrons in their activities. The new advertising trend has revolutionalised marketing strategies especially in activities that touch on the youth.

Popular events like the bimonthly Untamed Party at Rangers Restaurant, Grown and Sexxy at Carnivore and the Black Party have enjoyed massive boost through their Facebook blogs.

New wave

And it’s not only event organisers, club owners and other entertainers who are reaping from the online social madness but also print media organisations who use the venues to engage their viewers in their programmes on one-on-one response during live shows.

But at the same time, many local celebrities have suffered in the hands of impersonators who open accounts in their names and even end up wooing unsuspecting fans.

Daniel Ndambuki aka Churchill has an impersonator running a Facebook in his name. Indeed, the fake Churchill account has more fans than Ndambuki’s official one.

"The (fake) guy updates his account everyday and responds to fans who keep hitting his page during my shows. He is smart, I must admit," Churchill recently told Pulse.Jua Cali and Sanaipei Tande are the other singers whose Facebook pages have either been hacked into or their names used by impersonators.