Social networking sites- utilizing for the better!

BY WORKU BELACHEW
    

Social Networking Sites (SNS) are only a decade long phenomenon. However, today SNS has championed in affecting the lifestyle of people across the globe. Most celebrities have turned their face to SNS to promote themselves and their businesses, hence, have registered a tremendous successes. One of the most successful SNS, Facebook was created and launched in February 2004 by Harvard students Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, the site began as a network strictly for Harvard University. Two months later, the site expanded to include other Ivy League schools. After that, the college network slowly grew and by the end of 2004, it had registered more than a million users.
    Today, there are various SNS, created on various bases to serve the diversified interests of users-be it entertainment, professional, academic or whatever.  Many of these sites have succeeded in attracting the attention of youngsters more than any other segment of the society. Recent research findings indicate that Facebook users are between the age 13 and 25 that accounts 46 per cent of the total. Hundreds of thousands of people invest their time on such sites. A good example for that might be the fact that  people watch more than 2 billion video clips daily and every hour users upload an average of 24 hours of video content on youtube.
    Indeed, the innovation narrows the geographical gap between people that live at different places. It also helps in communicating information much faster than any other media. This is the single most important reason for attracting significant number of users to these sites. It is made possible to find out latest events virtually equal to one who has a physical presence to it supported by motion or still  picture, voice or text.
    It is evident that those sites have enormous advantages. However, there are countries that worry about these networking sites. This is simply because SNS could possibly reveal any secrets and incite rebellion against governments as it has been witnessed in north Africa countries. This was also evident in UK during the riot sparked in Tottenham and even made Mr. David Cameron to propose  whether it would be right to stop people communicating via social media. Companies as well are worried about the negative impacts of SNS on their business in various ways, thus, forced to take measures. Accordingly, in May 2011, HCL technologies (A leading offshore IT and software development company)  announced that approximately 50 per cent of British employers had banned Facebook from the workplace. Facebook has been blamed for decreasing employees' productivity and has been called a national obsession by anti-Facebook blogs widely.
    Cases including the stalking of minors, bullying and privacy issues become part of the public debate over social networking. Several minors have been lured into relationships with sexual predators they met online, forcing MySpace and other services to adopt age requirements and other safety measures. Copyright infringement cases have also arisen as a result of the use of music and video clips on personal profiles. Cyber breaches such as defamation from anonymous sources and posting pornographic pictures are also other challenges particularly to Facebook while minor users also tempted the company. Facebook, for instance, removes 20,000 underage users a day. Whereas, Facebook has been blocked in several countries including the People's Republic of China, Iran, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Syria,and Bangladesh for various reasons. 
Is social media a threat to Ethiopia?
    The number internet users is very few compare to the population size of the nation. This could be partly attributed to the limited internet service available, its cost and the high price of devices which help to access internet services. Some foreign studies indicate that the number of internet users in Ethiopia is insignificant compare to even east African countries like Kenya and Tanzania that have 7.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively. However, there is much hope for the expansion of internet service across the nation.
    Tamerat Abebe, Information Technology graduate from Addis Ababa University argues social networking sites are highly expanded at a global level including in Ethiopia. “I could not back my argument with figures but the number of SNS users is increasing. A simple indication of this is, internet cafes shave a considerable number of customers that devote their time on social networking sites particularly Facebook, for the better or worse. There are many people that access internet on their cell phones as well. The expansion of telecom services in the coming few years will for sure increase SNS users.”
    According to Tamerat, there are obvious reasons for the boom of Facebook users worldwide. “One, it is much user friendly and interactive. If you see tweeter, it is rather text based or internet relay chat and has little active users,” he said the growth of Facebook users in Ethiopia relates to the availability of internet connections in private and public institutions. It creates an opportunity for employees and management to use social networking sites. And he said it is a right time to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of SNSs.
    Abel Terefe,16, a high school student whom the writer of this piece met at one of the small internet cafes around Piazza complained that internet houses there could not accommodate more than ten customers at time. He always spends more than an hour a day chatting with his friends. He uses his pocket money for spending time on internet. When he do not have money for his internet fares, he begs his parents to give him their cell phones to use internet. This created a frequent clash  particularly with his mom for it consume her balance. In this Ethiopian academic year, he attends grade 10 and take the national examination. “Most of my classmates have mobile phones and use internet in class,” he said.
    Abel is unease if he does not use Facebook daily. However, he does not know how to relate SNSs with his education; “I have never used Facebook to support my education because the site is only used for entertainment. So, I always post pictures videos, comments and share to friends.” he said.
    According to Tamerat, children need a huge guidance on how to manage their time effectively and use internet for the better. Generally, it is recommended if underage children are prohibited from using sites such as Facebook. In so doing, they can be protected from harassment, abuse, pornographic videos and pictures which are utterly against their mental development. Researches also show that it reduces their cognitive potential as they may  give less time to their education. This also works even for adult users.
    Wisconsin center for education research in one of its article states that  'students who use social networking tools might pay significant hidden cognitive costs. Facebook, Google, and other web services simultaneously seize and fragment of our attention. They can  subvert higher-order reasoning processes, including the kind of focus, concentration, and persistence necessary for critical thinking and intellectual development. Some researchers have correlated heavy Internet use with greater impulsiveness, less patience, less tenacity, and weaker critical thinking skills. The need to rapidly shift from object to object online can weaken students’ ability to control their attention. Prolonged internet use exposes students to interactive, repetitive, and addictive stimuli that produce permanent changes in brain structure and function. The more one uses the internet and social media, the better the brain can skim and scan. Research suggests that these gains degrade the capacity for concentration, reasoning, and reflection.
    Ethiopia has obviously missed the industrial and technological revolutions happened in the 18th  and 19th centuries respectively. Due to that, the country become one of the poorly developed countries in the world and frequently exposed for severe drought and famine. Now the country should never miss the era of Information Technology. This nation need to pay all the costs that help its people to catch up with the dot com revolution sparked by the British engineer and computer scientist  Sir Tim Berners-lee (who innovated World Wide Web) and swiftly expanded across the planet.
    “There is no time to waste. we need to exploit the best out of this young technology. To the very fact we are not required to invest huge amount of finance to invest on software development. But, little effort to utilize the already available technology for free. Look, facebook is a free social networking service and we need to advance our knowledge, creating or joining groups already created which fit our interests,” said Tamrat and added, “teachers can have their own groups and share model practices. Teaching aid which is found effective in Addis Ababa can be communicated to a small remote rural wereda, given that the internet connection is available. Similarly, physicians in various places can draw experiences one from the other. Likewise, students in various schools can use facebook or other social media to get advanced knowledge and skills. Otherwise, hitting “like” and “share” on a funny friends' posts will be only wastage of both time and resources.”
    As it is stated on the nation's set goals of the five year GTP, all telecommunication infrastructures will be digital in the coming years to accommodate the latest information communication technologies; Woreda, cities, academic institutions (High schools and Universities), research institutes, social organizations and the private sector will benefit from the internet services expansion program. In addition, the ongoing network expansion program focuses on building a high capacity fiber optics transmission line which enables full utilization of latest information and communication technologies and via neighbouring countries links it with worldwide marine cables and enhance the global gateway capacity of the country.
    The latest information of Ethio telecom Internet and data services has shown a remarkable surge--a 72 percent increment than the previous fiscal year. Though still customers are complaining about poor mobile network and slow internet connection, provided that the company manage to ensure quality service, there will be a good prospect in the next few years with regard to internet service. But, with equal magnitude much tasks need to be done to aware, particularly, the youth on how to use this technology for the better.
There is a need to invest more to raise the consciousness of the information society here, on how to use the sites for the better. Indeed, parental and teachers guidance for school children are also undeniable facts to put  the new generation on the right truck in this regard coupled with efforts of the media. No doubt, without such efforts the result will be thousands of youngsters with severe cyber addiction and other unbearable societal crises like shyness and unable to mix up with peers as the interaction through SNS is too impersonal, despite the availability of emoticons.