Mediaboss Marketing

With the pandemic threatening to close more than 1 in 3 U.S. nonprofits during the next two years, according to estimates from Candid and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, now is the time for organizations to expand their leverage on social platforms.

Social media provides opportunities to engage audiences and to create conversations between audiences and companies. Rather than spending time and money on paid ads, social media is an effective method to engage constituents, establish trust and loyalty, and build communities.

Social medias powers are incontestable but amongst other platforms, why choose to create a presence on TikTok and audio-only app, Clubhouse? Both TikTok and Clubhouse have content versatility, shareability, and are growing in popularity.

In March 2021, Clubhouse surpassed Instagram, TikTok, Zoom and WhatsApp when it topped Apple Inc.s App Store in more than 30 countries. Recently, Clubhouse co-founders announced the platform would do away with its invitation-only concept, meaning the app is now open to everyone, and the 10 million people on the waitlist will be added over time. Additionally, Clubhouse continues to grow with 10 million weekly active users as of April who spend between 11 and 22 hours per week on the app.

TikTok is the seventh most-used social network in the world, has more than 689 million active users, was the most downloaded app in 2020 and has higher engagement among influencers in comparison to YouTube or Instagram. TikTok and Clubhouse have become prominent forms of communication in 2021 and are used by nonprofits to create informative content and to gain a substantial following. With this drastic increase in popularity on these platforms, nonprofit leaders could optimize their presence on these spaces to expand their awareness and to build relationships with their donors and volunteers.

Here are a few tips to consider when using TikTok and Clubhouse to raise new funds, reach new audiences, and build a community:

According to Social Media Today, TikTok is a valuable place to increase audience engagement. Tiktok influencers doubled between 2019 and 2020 and in 2021, the platform continues to be an effective way of reaching younger audiences.

Integrating TikTok into your marketing strategy can help raise awareness about your nonprofits mission, programs, and fundraising campaigns to people of all ages. Although 60% of TikTok users are from the Gen Z cohort (born 1997-2012), one-third of users are older than 24. Since 75% of young adults will raise funds for an organization that they care about, catering to Millennials can be beneficial to your nonprofit. TikTok is an effective way to target this demographic.

A few nonprofits that have a strong follower count on the platform are World Economic Forum (1.6 million), American Red Cross (745,000), and UNICEF (370,000).

Fundraising Features on TikTok

When connecting with your nonprofits designated audience on TikTok, its important to take advantage of certain features and stay up to date with the latest trends.

The two main features to keep in mind when using the platform is to display a link for your nonprofit in your profile and incorporate donation stickers on your published content. By providing a link on your nonprofits TikTok profile, users will be directed to a page where they can view donation options and even see how much your profile or account has raised.

You can even add stickers to your TikTok videos to raise awareness and funds. The best part about these features is that any other user on the platform can add your nonprofits link to their profile and add stickers to their content.

Staying informed of the latest trends can also contribute to your nonprofits growth on the application. Trends can originate from dances, challenges, songs, sounds, or features.

Being a Nonprofit on Clubhouse

Clubhouse can support your nonprofits mission through hosting rooms, joining clubs, and the tipping feature. In 2021, BestPractice.Biz reported that Clubhouse presents an amazing opportunity to establish yourself or the brand you work with. With 10 million weekly active users and notable entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg on the platform, Clubhouse can provide insightful conversations and opportunities to connect with highly influential people in popular culture.

Hosting rooms are like conference calls, and clubs are equivalent to joining a group based on interests and likes. Users can provoke conversation, network, and increase audience engagement. For example, you can connect with leaders of associations who can support your nonprofit or connect with other nonprofits that you might be interested in collaborating with.

Clubhouse recently launched a payments feature where users can tip in which 100% of the funds will go straight to the host. Although a small processing fee will go to the platform that conducts the transactions, fundraising opportunities can also originate from building authentic relationships and inviting people to hear your nonprofits story. For example, Clubhouse icon and artist-activist Drue Kataoka has raised nearly $120,000 for racial justice through the Asian American Federation.

Saving time and fundraising money

Clubhouse is also a great space for nonprofits to save time, effort, and money in networking, or in planning and hosting events. Clubhouse can be used to create panel discussions, conferences, and networking events online across multiple-rooms in a type of conversational style that mimics real-life interactions, but without the hassles and expenses of hosting in-person events.

Additionally, you might have the opportunity to connect with popular icons. Celebrities including Drake, Oprah, and many other powerhouses in popular culture have created accounts, hosted their own conversations that you can join, and they may even show up to random discussions.

As Rasha Ali reports, You may not be able to rub elbows with Elon Musk, Kevin Hart, Meek Mill, Tiffany Haddish and other celebrities on the regular, but you sure can hang out with them virtually, and these iconic people might be the influential powers you need to amplify your brand awareness and increase audience engagement.

In the end, you can leverage TikTok and Clubhouse through diverse forms of content creation. Nonprofit leaders have the opportunity to capitalize on TikTok and Clubhouse now, as the platforms continue to exponentially grow.

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Steffen Schebesta is CEO North America and vice president of corporate development at Sendinblue.

Original post:
Leveraging TikTok & Clubhouse At Your Nonprofit - The NonProfit Times

Two days after a 17-year-old was stabbed to death, allegedly by a group of juveniles and a local criminal in Uttam Nagar area over a reel he had posted on Instagram, his family members said that the main accused would routinely bully boys in the area and record videos to post on the social networking platform.

The accused, Sohan Lal, is absconding. According to initial investigation carried out by police, he once worked as a police informer.

Additional DCP (Dwarka district) Vikram Singh said Sohan Lal has a criminal record and a proposal for his externment is pending. Around five cases have been registered against him and we are looking for him, Singh said.

On Sunday evening, the victim was allegedly picked by a group of five-six juveniles along with Sohan Lal.

They first assaulted him in a market and then took him in an e-rickshaw to their flat where they stabbed him eight times with the help of an ice-pick, police said.

As per the PM report, the cause of death was hemorrhagic shock caused by tearing/penetration of large blood vessels caused by sharp ice-picking needle. We lodged an FIR after we received a complaint from the victims sister, Singh said.

While his mother alleged he was also sexually assaulted by the accused. Singh said the post-mortem report does not indicate this.

The victim, who has nine siblings, studied till class VIII, after which he started working. He was fond of social media, but he didnt have a smartphone. He used his friends phone to set up an Instagram account and used that to check updates and upload content, said his cousin.

He had recently started working in a paint factory, where he was getting Rs 12,000 a month. He left studies and started working to help our younger siblings complete their education. Our dream of living with dignity has been shattered, said his sister.

On Tuesday, his sisters and mother met police officials at the Uttam Nagar police station.

We found out that my brother had posted a photo of Sohan Lal and his friend on Instagram and used some abusive language. Within hours, he was picked up by Sohan Lal and his associates from the local market, she said.

See the original post here:
Murder over Instagram post: Victims kin say accused often beat locals, filmed assault - The Indian Express

Ronn Torossian has spent his entire career as a PR executive in New York City, fine-tuning his PR techniques and learning to lead effectively. His ideal approach is to establish himself as an expert within a particular field through thought leadership. Ronn Torossian PR has become synonymous with marketing in his field, and if savvy businesses and individuals are willing to listen, he can help them market themselves.

What is Thought Leadership?

Let's take a step back for a moment and think about Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and Dave Ramsey as role models of thought leadership. The people above are more than just celebrities. They have a massive following that truly represents the values of the brand these mega superstars have built. Fans of Oprah hang on her every word, buy each book of the month, and follow her success mantras. Fans of Taylor Swift will leap to her defense, and Dave Ramsey is easily the world's most famous financial expert.

How did they all get to this point? By using thought leadership to market their business. By carefully watching what people want, what they need, and how they tend to embrace their heroes, Ronn Torossian has done the same. The chances are good that people will lean into your ideas wholeheartedly if you give them credibility and something to believe in. And that's the essence of thought leadership.

Ronn Torossian defines thought leadership as the process of providing useful information to your industry to build credibility. It will be much easier to market or sell your product once you become an expert and a top resource within your field.Developing thought leadership involves promoting educational content and establishing oneself as a leader in the broader community. Social media is particularly useful for casting a wide net and gaining exposure.

Ronn Torossian's Thought Leadership Best Practices

Although there are many different approaches to thought leadership, Ronn Torossian PRhas discovered only a few strategies that consistently yield success. Here are some of Torossian's top recommendations.

Know Your Audience

To begin with, you must know who you want to inspire. Not only do you need to know your audience to provide the information they want, but you also need to know their buyer persona to ensure they will become your customers. Whatever you are selling, such as thoughts, products, services, or recommendations, you must find a way to engage your consumers so they become loyal clients.

Start by engaging with customers on social media. Furthermore, you might want to start reaching out to consumers with basic questions regarding your field. Creating leadership content will position you as a leader in the industry.

It is important to keep in mind that your target audience is likely to age, evolve, and adapt over time. Maintain the same approach to ensure that you gain new followers and keep the ones you already have.

Get Social

After working in the PR industry for over a decade, Ronn Torossian has learned that networking is key to success. Networking is essential as a top executive in the Big Apple, but social networks and social media have made the process much simpler.

Reaching your consumer base through social media is easy to market your company. This is an excellent tool for staying connected to potential customers while establishing a unique voice that will help you stand out from your competitors.

Put Your Words Into Print

Engaging followers in a conversation is one thing, but you need to develop your authority if you want to establish credibility as a thought leader. You can do this by publishing an assortment of articles. To get out of the social media bubble, you should guest post on other sites, participate in events, host a podcast, publish an article, or improve your video content.

You should explore as many formats as possible, as every consumer reacts differently to different forms. If you aim for all of them, you will broaden your base, something Ronn Torossian is very familiar with.

Be Yourself

Authenticity is a key aspect of thought leadership. After a while, fake public personas break down because they're hard to maintain. Oprah and Taylor Swift continue to attract attention because they are unapologetically themselves at all times. Genuine people attract everyone in one way or another..

Content that feels authentic and is authentic will benefit your brand. When you believe in what you are saying, thought leadership is at its best, and staying true to its principles makes that possible.

About Ronn:

Ronn Torossian is one of the strongest PR professionals in the business. With over two decades of experience under his belt, fine-tuning tools like thought leadership, he founded his first company in 2003 and watched it grow into a top global agency. In addition to being named Metropolitan Magazine's Most Influential New Yorker, Ronn Torossian has been named Crain's New York 2021 Most Notable in Marketing and PR and the American Business Awards' PR Executive of the Year twice.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or the management of EconoTimes

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Ronn Torossian PR Guru on the Importance of Thought Leadership - EconoTimes

In the age of selfies, snaps, likes and shares, the internet and social media have transformed the way in which people communicate. In early 2019, global internet penetration reached 57 percent, or 4.4 billion users, and the overall number of mobile social media users reached 42 percent, or 3.2 billion people. This means that people are able to share ideas, communicate and interact more rapidly than ever before, including with audiences on the other side of the world. Terrorist groups have certainly leveraged these new mechanisms and platforms for communicating amongst themselves and to potential recruits. Terrorist groups have been known for producing sleek videos circulated on YouTube and Twitter, and have mastered new and emerging technologies and social media platforms, such as Telegram; all to promote its messages in cyberspace. Social media and the internet have accelerated the speed and reduced the cost of sharing information. This has supported the process of many terrorist organisations to reorganise themselves into a network style structure and enhanced the capacity of each cell to operate independently, especially for the dissemination of the organisations messages.

faceless terrorists

The internet is a fertile breeding ground where faceless terrorists communicate hatred and intolerance, which manifests in carnage and death. A survey by the International Journal on Cyber Warfare stated that there were 50 million tweets globally by eight million users with the keywords ISIS and ISIL. The new trend is e-terrorism extending to multidimensional propaganda. ISIS leaders post videos on YouTube glorifying the actions of their cadres worldwide. The internet can be accessed by anyone remotely. There is no need for facial interaction. It is an invisible cyber battleground. Modern terrorist networks typically consist of widely distributed, smaller cells who communicate and coordinate their campaigns in an interweaving fashion.

In our rapidly changing world, it takes a coordinated effort of the public and private sectors to identify new threats on the horizon and ensure both police and society are prepared to face them. The illicit sale of drugs, firearms and explosives; people smuggling; money laundering; terrorist activities; and cybercrime can all be facilitated by these technologies. There has been a growth in the use of technologies which provide anonymity to their users. The Darknet the vast portion of the Internet which can only be accessed using specialised software and virtual crypto currencies have many positive benefits, but the focus on anonymity leaves them open to misuse by criminals.

As a partner in the European-Union funded Project Titanium the INTERPOL assisted in the development of a block chain analytics tool called Graph Sense which supports the tracing of crypto currency transactions. This tool allows investigators to search crypto currency addresses, tags and transactions, to identify clusters related to an address and therefore follow the money in support of their investigations. The Practitioner Manual for ASEAN Countries to Counter Terrorism using the Darknet and Crypto currencies will provide law enforcement users with comprehensive guidelines on investigating terrorist activities on the Darknet, including those involving the use of crypto currencies.

Fake websites

Terror groups will often use fake websites that have the look and feel of a legitimate website. Another way of obtaining your personal data (for identity theft) is by sending fake cloned e-mails which may ask for your full name, bank accounts and mobile numbers. A common trick in cybercrime is the use of misspelt URLs and use of sub-domains to deceive and redirect you elsewhere. A new digital threat was found overseas in the form of ransomware this is a malware that encrypts or locks your valuable digital files and then demands a ransom (cash) to release the locked data. Ransomware can thus infiltrate important computer systems and cripple the nations finances, cause mayhem in the stock markets and create havoc on air traffic flight control systems.

Psychologists agree that terrorists thrive on the oxygen of publicity. Jihadist ideology wants people to show them sympathy and propagates a negative attitude towards those who reject them.

There are 46,000 suspected Twitter accounts (from Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia) that post tweets supporting the ISIS and will also influence radicals following them. Many tweets also originate from the Al-Khansaa Brigade, ISIS All-Women Police Force. Al-Khansaa was a famous Arabian poet decades ago. Social media propaganda can attract viewers as well as present a strong narrative that addresses the push and pull factors of local communities, it is likely to impact the radicalisation process of vulnerable individuals.

Electronic evidence is a component of almost all criminal activities and digital forensics support is crucial for law enforcement investigations. Electronic evidence can be collected from a wide array of sources, such as computers, smart phones, remote storage, unmanned aerial systems, ship borne equipment, and more. Another modern example of high-quality propaganda is that of the video game Salil- al- Sawarem (The Clanging of Swords): a first-person shooter game that was modeled to gain publicity for - and draw attention to ISIS. Trailers for the game were released on multiple websites and platforms across the internet. In this way, these types of sophisticated communications can easily go viral. The modern appearance assists with translating the terrorists violence into a language that is understandable for the average young viewer, thereby increasing the psychological impact on the target audience.

Online radicalisation

In addition to games, videos, and images, several terrorist groups also publish online magazines, and these publications appear to play an important role in online radicalisation. The accessibility and popularity of sleek online magazines has reportedly contributed towards the successful enlargement of several terrorist organisations, including ISIS, through their magazines Dabiq and Rumiyah, Al-Qaeda via Inspire, and Al-Shabaab through Gaidi Mtaani. The inclusion of images that show fighters in militarized clothing has been shown to attract individuals to violence. Additionally, emphasis on masculinity and bravery has been found to appeal to individuals who desire excitement and are attracted to thrill seeking.

The inclusion of religious quotes, the presentation of members as heroic martyrs glorifying their violent (suicide bomber) deaths as a sacrifice, and the portrayal of a common enemy appeal to diverse readers, and leads towards a philosophical discussion. The ability of terrorist organisations to produce inspiring, high quality propaganda that can be shared on social media and the internet has been of critical importance for their brand management and their approach to radicalization, as well as using mainstream social media, such as those mentioned already, it should also be noted that terrorist groups use a wide range of various other social networking sites, including Flickr, Vimeo, Instagram, and Sound Cloud, as well as their own blogs and websites.

The digital domain is rife with terrorism. It must be fully monitored by law enforcement agencies in every nation.

Read more from the original source:
Extremism and terrorism in the digital domain - Ceylon Daily News

Chris Anyokwu

By Chris Anyokwu

Walter Benjamin, once famously declared in his work, On the Concept of History, that: There is no document of civilisation that is not also a document of barbarism. Man in his restless search for solutions to lifes many imponderables and impedimenta has been able to conquer and harness nature thereby creating culture. Culture in this context designates the sum of humans ways of conducting their day-to-day affairs in their relentless pursuit of felicity and happiness. Even so, it has not always been rosy and smooth-sailing with regard to mans inventions and discoveries. Just like in everything else, there are always unintended consequences.

Take, for instance, motor vehicle technology. The production of vehicles such as cars, lorries, vans and buses has made movement a lot less irksome and has helped in shrinking long distances separating towns and cities, communities and peoples. But the sad obverse is that this modern technological invention has also led to the great loss of life, a curse-blessing which the ancient Greek call pharmakos and a paradoxical quagmire poetised by Wole Soyinka in his mytho-poem, Idanre. Paradisiacal as the carapace cruising on the road might feel, it is often involved in road mishaps due largely to mechanical, electrical or human errors/defects.

Among causes of road accidents include burst tyres, overheating, over-speeding, uneven road surfaces, road craters, freak mal-functioning of auto parts while the vehicle is in motion, etc. Ditto for airplanes, ocean-going vessels, among others. We can make the same argument for social media. Perhaps, its reasonable for us to begin our reflection today by briefly taking a look at how it all started and how we got to where we are today. To that extent, therefore, it is useful to remind ourselves that social media sites such as Facebook are the natural consequence of many centuries of social media development. We are reliably informed that the earliest methods of communicating across great distances used written correspondence delivered by hand from one person to another. We are talking specifically about letters (C.550 B.C.). In 1792, the telegraph was invented which invariably meant the conveyance of information encapsulated in short messages. The telegraphic capsules were a revolutionary way to convey news and information back in the day. Then followed what was referred to as the pneumatic post, developed in 1865. This had created another way for letters to be delivered quickly between recipients. A pneumatic post was said to utilise underground pressurised air tubes to carry capsules from one area to another.

The telephone was invented in 1890 and the radio in 1891, both helped mankind to communicate across great distances instantaneously. Technology, to be sure, changed rapidly in the 20th century. After the first supercomputers were created in the 1940s, scientists and engineers began to develop ways to create networks between those computers, and this would lead as time went by to the birth of the internet.

The first recognisable social media site, Six Degrees, was created in 1997. In 1999, the first blogging sites became popular, creating a social media sensation thats still popular today. These blogging sites include myspace, LinkedIn, Photobucket, and Flickrand they all facilitated online photo sharing. Youtube came out in 2005, creating an entirely new way for people to communicate and share with one another across great distances. By 2006, Facebook and twitterbecame available to users throughout the world and other sites such as Tumblr, Spotify, Foursquare and Pinterest beganpopping up to fill in social media niches. Today, there is a tremendous variety of social networking sites, and many of them can be linked to allow cross-posting. This creates an atmosphere where users can reach the maximum number of people without sacrificing the intimacy of person-to-person communication (see Google.com).

The case of person-to-person communication delivered via social media has been achieved at a stiff price, namely our nakedness. And nakedness must be understood in the broadest sense possible. Im certain the invocation of the word nakedness instinctively brings to mind mans primal Act of Shame at Genesis. According to Scripture, Adam and Eve, our progenitors were both originally naked but they were not ashamed. But after they ate of the Tree of Knowledge, we are told that the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked (Genesis Chapter 2). The consequence of the Original Sin of Disobedience, for the primal pair, was grievous and shameful knowledge of their essential abjection, their nakedness, body and soul. Even we, their latter-day progeny, have inherited their nakedness, the so-called Adamic nature ofsin and corruption. Thus, our inheritance of nakedness is comeuppance for our default mode of disobedience. Contextualised and framed within the tramlines of contemporary experience, our nakedness at present is the fall-out of our idolatrous and obsessive reification of social media.

In the world of social media, content is king, but we ask: what kinds of content are on display for all to see and consume? Without filibustering, let us concede straightaway that social media, as posited above, has revolutionised social discourse, speech acts, communicative events and the all-important act/art of communication. We shall come to that in some detail much later. But our concern, for now, are the harmful effects or functions of social media. Take sex, for example. Growing up, the whole thing about sex was carefully and ritualistically shrouded in vague, coded idioms and para-verbal signs and signals. Never was sex spoken of or practised in plain sight as it is done nowadays. It was (and still is!) sacred and must be contemplated and consummated within elaborate rituals of secrecy, gravity and definite purpose. Is it so now? Have you seen children, aged 4 8, gyrating raunchily in the name of dancing at parties? Christmas is upon us, so you will see such belly-aching sights aplenty. Woe betide that parent who does not fall in line by buying his/her primary or secondary school child a smartphone. Are these cell phones for making and receiving calls only? Never, not on your life! Simply put, every schoolboy and girl wants a phone in order to surf the so-called Super-Highway, the internet. What do these tiny tots seek on the internet? Research material? Never! For them, social media is a veritable detour to fabulous worlds of phantasmagoria, fantasy and nirvana. It is a world of escape that is, escape from our humdrum world of objective reality marked as it is by storm and stress and escape into a meretricious and illusory dimension of dubious bliss. The enchantment and the spell of alternate utopias only bring lasting regrets, sometimes, beyond the grave. Pornography, bullying, body-shaming, stalking, anti-social brain-washing and indoctrination and other deleterious acts are some of the negative effects of social media.

On a daily basis, we are assaulted and assailed by the downright execrable, the incredibly creepy and weird, the heart-stoppingly unprintable on social media as folks put on display the very worst in human deviancy and depravity. The idea is that the more creepy, the more forbidden, the more unprintable the better for social media ventilation. The scandalous is the oxygen of social media Father rapes pre-teen daughter; Mom and son tie the knot, Parents eat their children, etc. Things along those lines.The banal equally trend online: How I share my panties with my mother. How my Dad and I measure our manhood, My Boobs are bigger than yours! In vain do we seek to capture and comprehend the scope and scale of profanity, pejorism, the bizarre that constitute the content of social media. Traditionally, the family, the school, church/mosque, the media (print and electronic) and peer group are considered the main agents of socialisation. But these agents of socialisation have now paled into insignificance compared to the overwhelming influence of social media today. What weight does parental control carry in the face of SM? Doesnt the Man of God sound and look old-fashioned in the eyes of these young ones? Hasnt SM taken away the ethical element from our media, leaving it emptied of meaning and drained of relevance? In this Social Media Age, the youth are a demographic time-bomb waiting to blast civilisation as we know it to smithereens. They have abandoned the terrestrial world to us, old-school types, and have smartly relocated onto virtual space. They are no longer citizens, but netizens! And in their world, vices such as rebellion, subversiveness, violence, vandalism, arson, cannibalism, mischief, fake news, pranking, and radicalism are the currency of conversation. Cultism and the occult also thrive therein.

Also, in this parallel world, mentorship and role-modelling revolve around trolls, spooks, online masters/mistresses, doppelgangers, gods and goddesses. And since language is the vector of culture, netizens have also devised their own unique lingo. Ever heard of the word encryption? That is the essence of their language in their ecosystem. Encryption is the method by which information is converted into secret code that hides the informations true meaning. In computing, unencrypted data is also known as plaintext, and encrypted data is called ciphertext. The formulae used to encode and decode messages are called encryptionalgorithms or ciphers. In the essay entitled Social Media and the English Language, Reuben Abati inimitably and brilliantly explores the use of digital slang by Nigerian youth. He writes: Texting and tweeting is producing a generation of users of English [] who cannot write grammatically successful sentences. Abati notes further that these youths cannot tell the difference between a comma and a colon. They have no regard for punctuation. They mix up pronouns, cannibalise verbs and adverbs, ignore punctuation; and violate all rules of lexis and syntax. They seem to rely more on sound rather than formal meaning. Abati tells us that the domains of choice for our netizens are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. He vouchsafes and furnishes a few examples of their digital sociolect as follows: For [4], forget [4get] or [4git]; see [c], straight[str8], first[fess], will [wee], help [epp], etc. Abati adds thus: Oftentimes, this special prose arrives amidst a number of other confusing symbols, emoticons, memes, acronyms and abbreviations, looking like a photographic combination of English and hieroglyphics. New words such as bae, boo, finz, famzing, Yaaay, 420 (marijuana) 143(I love you) 182(I hate you) Idaful (wonderful) 53x (sex) PAW(parents are watching), ADIDAS (All Day I Dream About Sex) litter the discursive topography of our netizens. Whilst this unorthodox orthography, according to Abati, implies a fascination with speed, secrecy, and privacy, it equally highlights the disturbing fact that users are increasingly socialised into not knowing the difference between correct and incorrect English grammar and usage. It exemplifies the lack of rigour and propriety and organisation. The point really is: think clearly, write clearly. In this regard, the role of critical thinking and logic cannot be overstated. Netizens spend a lot of time on websites, on apps, giving rise to a rash of pathological issues, some we are already familiar with, others waiting to be discovered to our dismay. Digitally savvy children are, by the same token, moral liabilities to their parents and society. The interface between man and technology has been beneficial to a degree as argued earlier on but its negative effects far outweigh the positive ones. Yes, neologisms such as textspeak, texting, sextexting, twitter troll, tweeps, emoticons, emojis, tweeterati, blogging, tweet, re-tweet, hashtag tendto keep lexicographers happy, but, the fact of the matter is that social media if left unchecked or unregulated will yet set the world on fire.

*Chris Anyokwu writes from the University of Lagos

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Social Media and the Price of Civilisation - The News