Social media and tribal hatred

Social media provides interactive forums whose aim is to bring people together in the cloud mainly for the purpose of sharing common interests. Apart from connecting two people like a telephone call would do, the social media allows more than two individuals to exchange messages and other contents in real time.

In Facebook for instance, one can create a group in which others can join, see what is happening inside and participate in its activities. Pages also exist which, after liking, one is able to see and follow every post made by the page. Facebook therefore is a typical example of a social forum whose millions of users enjoy the privilege of ‘seeing’ each other in the cloud as if no distance exists between or amongst them.

However, not all people use social forums in a positive way. There are some users who are out there to advocate for hatred between individuals or groups. The interactive provision offered by social media, if soberly used, would promote national unity and foster cohesion among people of different backgrounds. On the other hand, the power of the same forums when carelessly used can completely divide a people.

You have probably seen a controversial news article posted on Facebook by one of the media houses in Kenya, about a certain politician from a particular tribe. The comments that usually follow afterwards are enough to tell that tribal hatred exist in our country. Insults, abusive comments and replies from heaters of another tribe will thread, either against the politician or any other person whose comment appears to support him/her.

Unlike in the websites of mainstream media, where a comment to a story is reviewed by the organization before being approved or disapproved, comments in most social media are free flowing, regardless of their nature and message they carry.

For this reason, one who claims that social media promotes tribal cohesion is right and the other person who says that media promotes tribal division is also right.