Irony Of Social Media -By Sulaiman Maijama’a

If I were asked to recommend any field of study that should be incorporated to the communication discipline, I would, without having a second thought, say “Social Media Sarcasm”. I’m of the view also that, just like we have the Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and the rest, “Social Media” should be added to the list of these planets because the kind of life many people (not all)  portray in their content on social media is different in totality from their physical life on this earth. I remember my naivety and how callow I was when I used to believe every attitude people exhibit on social media is real.

Media scholars researched and published bundles of literature on the enormity of percentage fake news is taking in the content of social media. But fake loyalty, fake piety, fake exhibition of wealth, fake activism, fake this and that have equally grabbed a greater percentage of the content and grown enough to be a thesis for PhD in the media discourse. Ask people who accept love on social media, they will best tell the disappointment of these fakery.

Are  you a politician and think that all the praise singings and  exaggerated compliments from social media commanders are pure from heart? I once crossed paths and discussed with a social media acquaintance. He complained to me bitterly about a political appointee that he knows is my man. He said the appointee does not help them, does not look for them unless he wants them to attack an opponent. To cut it short, the way this guy was boldly criticising the appointee, one might assume he could dare look the politician in the face and tell him. That was in the afternoon. I was scandalized when in the evening of the same day, while surfing Facebook, I read the post of the same person flattering the same politician he condemned in the afternoon. 

If you agree people whose content on social media is exclusively religious related, are all Goldy, remember Abdulmalik Tanko, the Kano Principal and killer of little Hanifa Abubakar. His handles are full of religious message — sermons, tafseer, ta’alim and the likes. But little did people know that he is the opposite of what he was promoting. I have a pretender friend that I know from secondary school. If you know him only on social media alone and you were asked to access him, you might finalise he is  Ɗan Aljanna because on social media, he doesn’t argue and doesn’t talk about politics. He post nothing on all his  handles but wa’azi. When you  are having a chat with him, most of his responses are direct qoutes from Qur’an or Hadith. But those who know this person personally know him to be direct opposite of this. I recently handled a big case he was involved in.

There is a story (fictional) of a Fulani man who was travelling in a car and be discovered that trees were passing in a high speed. Be asked the driver to drop him, saying trees were higher in speed. When he climbed, he discovered he was wrong. There exists people who are good in posting themselves in mansions, wearing expensive Italian Shadda, with expensive cars, trying to give the impression of affluence that doesn’t exist. Many are deceived into thinking it is real and many attempt to copy them. Someone once asked me in Kano about a certain person in Bauchi that he knows only on social media. He said the guy must have been an ajebota from a wealthy family, by the kind of pictures he posts on social media. But that is not true. I know the guy to be struggling with life but the version of himself on social media is totally different.

Do you agree that all the people that come on social media, condemning people of their region for being lazy and unproductive are ready to support them to be productive? I once reached out to one the critics of the northern youth, requested him to guide me on something I was preparing for, but he told me that he did not have the time. After sometime, I contacted again for another issue, but gave me some guidelines that Hausa people call “kora da Hali”. This is the person that always on social media accuses  Arewa and its people of being unprogressive-minded.

May our sayings and actions have correlation,…

Maijama’a can be reached via sulaimanmaija@gmail.com