Generation Z

 I promised to write about Barcelona today but I noticed my present audience are into football that much. I know a few that love football greatly but the ratio is small, so I’m going t skip it for some other day. Today’s talk on the effect of movies & social media on the young ones. What prompted this is the conversation I had with my Lil cousin yesterday. She uploaded a Tiktok video on her WhatsApp status which left my mouth open. I don’t want to be the old-school uncle, rather than chastise her bluntly, I decided to start a conversation with her. I know if I messaged her telling her how bad the video is, especially for a young girl like her, she will surely block me from seeing future posts.

For a long, I’ve been wondering what’s wrong with my Generation. So many things happening at the same time and we celebrate things that ought to be shameful. Recently, the sex tape of two popular artists in Nigeria got leaked. When the first video came out, the lady in question was chastised, ridiculed and called names but when the other celeb's video came out, he was praised for his sexual prowess (our double standard is a topic for another day), but when the video leaked kept on increasing, he received the backlash. The question everyone kept asking was “Why make the video at all?”.  or “who uploaded it online?”

My question was answered when I saw this series “Euphoria”. In a particular episode “Rue” said, in the times of our mothers and fathers the love language was writing letters and sending flowers but today the love language is nudes and sex tapes. When did things change? - Social media is the answer. The things we see every day on social media have a direct or indirect impact on us. The eyes might see it once and move on, but it’s forever stamped in the heart. Even our movies that are meant to pass a meaningful message, point out and correct some wrongs in society are now doing the direct opposite.

What’s the way out?

What works for A might not work for B. The home is the first point of training for every child. The way a child is raised matters a lot, but we can’t disregard the impact of society, and school on the child’s life. To avoid confusion I’ll stick to the parent part.

It’s now a norm to see a child not yet up to 10with a mobile device. I can understand this well. It’s better you give the kids what they want so they don’t go outside and get it the wrong way. There are ways parents can censor or monitor what the kid is doing on the phone, but even the young kids of nowadays are smart enough to detect that, moreover, browsers now offer incognito browsing which helps in hiding activities.

Be your child’s best friend. Kids interact with their best friends without fear. If you’re in that position in your child’s life, it will be easy for him/her to share their secrets with you and you can advise them. If one isn’t close to them, they go outside to look for advice and most times social media is their best friend - which can be dangerous.

I once talked about the government working on banning sports bets in the country, but I’m afraid to say that’s not the only menace we have now. Exposure to different sexual content online is harming the youth. A few years ago while applying for a scholarship- one of the top scholarships in the country, I kept on receiving pop-ups of different pornography sites. Imagine, an educational site advertising pornography.

In conclusion, social media is going nowhere, so we will forever be exposed to the various social vices and even worse. All we can do as fathers, mothers, uncles, aunties is to be close to our wards, speak with them always, have a healthy relationship with them and continually pray for them.

Thanks for Reading!💚💚💚