Depravity of morals and the dirty role of Influencers
Depravity of morals and the dirty role of Influencers
Cameroonian youth today pose a problem. It is illustrated more in the depravity of morals. If sex, alcohol, drugs and violence have always existed in our cities, with the advent of social networks they are now trivialized. There is no shortage of days when we find ourselves faced with images showing young people exhibiting questionable behavior.
We still remember a few days ago the broadcast of videos of the young girl of barely 20 years old in the midst of sexual intercourse which kept social networks in suspense. The case even turned into a debate on the figures that these young people take as role models in society. This situation has laid bare the influencer phenomenon in Cameroon. Who should be considered an influencer, and why.
The phenomenon of web influence sometimes drags a bad reputation behind it. The goal for many influencers is to become famous, to create a “buzz” by all means, including the most sordid. They are absorbed by the desire to collect the greatest number of “likes”, emoticons of hearts, virtual applause. To this end, they publish “posts”, photos, audios, videos, “stories” almost daily. They take care of appearances, show on the Web an overrated and sublimated image of themselves, very often far from reality.
They are surfing the wave of popular fantasies, notably wealth, youth, physical beauty, material success. They want to pass themselves off as privileged by ostensibly brandishing outward signs of success, namely overpriced designer clothes, accessories, jewelry; they pretend to drive a coach, drink champagne and good vintage wines. Money, material possessions are emphasized here, but no one cares how they are earned. Whether they are the result of embezzlement of public funds, corruption and other embezzlement, prostitution, organized crime or feymania, this poses no problem because, for the majority of citizens, money no longer has smell.
Publications on social networks which are mostly at the origin of the drift of many young people who take as an example these pseudo influencers who have borrowed unorthodox voices to be famous. Once in the spotlight, they are adored by a youth who think that to succeed in their lives they should follow the same path as the latter, forgetting in passing that you should not believe everything you see on the networks. social because all that glitters is not gold. This is the place here to challenge certain parents or tutors on the role that is theirs in the construction of their offspring. These parents who are too busy, in a frantic search for equipment, obsessed with their social affirmation at all costs and who are therefore unable to spend a few minutes with their children.
How to understand that African youth, in search of notoriety and likes on social networks, publishes obscenities flouting the rules of conduct in society?
Whether Instagram, Facebook, tweeter or applications such as Snapchap, Tiktok, these different platforms allow these young people to federate, to meet, to create links or to discuss everything around them. Unfortunately not everything is always rosy with Social Networks since our young people easily become addicted. Young girls are increasingly looking for the perfect body. She assimilates to celebrities, which leads to a loss of self-esteem. This severe look at her body is accentuated by the networks of placement of influencer products, body creams, slimming potions or other miracle cures.
The Internet and social networks are therefore akin to a jungle where useful and educational information rub shoulders with futile and harmful information. With the arrival of new sources of information not very often controlled by the State or parents, the users of these social networks become potential victims of the advent of these new information technologies. In addition to the advent of social networks whose content is not always subject to parental control, we must recognize that we are responsible for our own turpitude. It is to believe that Africans were not yet ready for the era of new information and communication technologies.
Nowadays, to be considered a model of social success and to have the wind in its sails on the Internet and social networks, one should be ready for anything for money, and give pride of place to futility, superficiality, to ease, and to appearances. Unfortunately, today you can be a thug, a pervert, a person of little virtue, but do the fat cabbage and have a storefront, only because you are famous on social networks, that you have money and material goods. This new model of social success based on having to the detriment of being inevitably leads to the objectification of the human being, to the disorganization of a society deprived of landmarks, without values, without faith or law.
It therefore appears essential, even vital for the Internet user, to show critical thinking, wisdom and discernment in order to separate the wheat from the chaff, to promote the useful and combat the futile. Remember that a few years ago in Cameroon, adolescents did not have access to audiovisual media. The families who owned a television set could be counted at their fingertips. The education that took precedence in this time was that of the parents, that of the older generation who attached great importance to morality or even the education of the masters. It is therefore time for parents who have always been the first educators of their children to get back to it.
These parents therefore have the right and the duty to establish intellectual and emotional foundations and to develop the system of values and attitudes of their children, especially since the future of a child is strongly announced in watermark in the preschool period. They must therefore exercise their responsibilities as parents of pupils. For its part, the State, through the education system, must train young people to become good citizens and good professionals and give them the foundations for lifelong learning and personal development.
