Nigeria is currently hosting the 2022 UNESCO Global Media and Information Literacy Week in Abuja, and the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed, was on hand to greet the visitors. and to remind them of the enormity of the task ahead of them during the conference. In his address, he pondered on the current state of the world with special emphasis on the unregulated use of social media and other digital platforms.  According to him, there is an urgent need, “for every person to be equipped with the ability to critically evaluate and wisely use the information at their disposal.” The Minister also affirmed the relevance, and timelines of the theme of this year’s Global MIL Week, which is “Nurturing Trust: A Media and Information Literacy Imperative”.  Interestingly, I have also been pondering, and thinking historically after I read the ruling of an inquest into the death of 13- year old Molly Russell, who committed suicide in 2017.

As it turns out, the quest for utopia, and the easy life where everything is at the click of a button has brought monumental benefits to humanity. Historically, no technology has ever gained notoriety and ubiquity as social media in such a small time. With 12.5 trillion hours spent on social media by about 4.7 billion persons globally, social media has stamped its place as an inalienable part of everyday life.  Data from Datareportal reports reveal that in the last twelve months alone, social media platforms have added 227 million new users. The significance of this information is that 59 percent of the world population is on social media, and spending an average of two hours and twenty-nine minutes every day as of July 2022. The internet made the world a global village, but with mobile technology and social media, our loved ones are just a click away irrespective of their location in the world. Social media adoption across the globe brought with it huge benefits for individuals, businesses, and governments. Individuals, especially young people, have benefited the most, as the social media platforms have emailed them to build social networks, establish new relationships, strengthen existing ones, and even minimize, or end some old ones. It has also helped them develop their communication skills in no small measure.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a case in point, where digital technology and social media came to the rescue when more than half of the world was compelled to stay indoors by an unseen enemy. It was the primary means of staying really connected.It has also become a formidable tool for businesses to reach, acquire, and keep customers. It is so relevant that graduate courses on social media marketing and analytics are springing everywhere. According to some estimates, global spending on social media advertising was above $4 billion in the past year. Going by this figure, social media is on course to replace traditional media channels like newspapers, radio, and television.

Unfortunately, this singular factor is one key reason why a technology that has brought so much good, also causes grave psychological harm that can actually lead to death, as in the case of 14 – year old Molly Russell. There are at least three sources of social media harm, namely the actions of other social media users, user exposure and consumption of harmful content, number of hours spent online, and finally, the actions of social media platforms. A 2018 pew research survey of US teens, conducted by the Pew Research Center revealed that one in six teenagers has been the target of six different abusive behaviours online. The research surmised that 90 percent of teens believed that online harassment is a problem, especially for people within their age bracket.The disaggregated data also gave insight into two major dangers of social media. The teenagers reported receiving unsolicited explicit images, and another group reported that they were being tracked by someone other than their parents.

However, even more, dangerous harm is caused by the actions, or inaction of the individual user online; ranging from how often, and how long an individual stay connected to social platforms and the impact on self-esteem due to the consumption of social media content. For instance, another 2018 survey by the Pew Research Center of 750, 13 to 17 -year Olds in the US discovered that 45 percent of teenagers are online constantly. This trend has also been shown in adults with very dire consequences. In fact, a study of 1000 Swedish Facebook users observed that women who spend more time on Facebook reported feeling Les happy and confident. Women compare themselves negatively to photos and selfies of other women. They also compare their lives with the seemingly successful lives of others on social media, and the consequence is a deep sense of unfulfillment.

Even though the actions of the individual user could cause reasonable harm, social media companies bear the greatest responsibility for the harm done by their platforms, especially to children who do not know better. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat have been fingered in several cases of corporate malpractice. They have sacrificed the well-being and lives of young people on the altar of profit. Recent revelations have shown that social media platforms are designed to be addictive; and with endless scroll features, young people are sucked into a vortex of targeted content. Most of the contents targeted at children are sexually explicit in nature, and therefore not age appropriate. Research conducted by 5Right Foundation was able to demonstrate that young people are targeted with unsavory content, including images of self-harm, and pornography. The addictive nature of social media has shown up in the fact that 20 percent of people on at least one social media platform feel they must check them at least once every three hours to avoid feeling anxious. This phenomenon even has a name, ‘Social Media Anxiety Disorder,” or SMAD; and people diagnosed with SMAD find it difficult to carry on a conversation for long without picking up their phones.

They spend as much as six hours on their phones per day to the detriment of school, work, family, and other favourable activities. They also experienced severe nervousness, anxiety, or withdrawal symptoms whenever they are unable to get on social media.Facebook depression is also another new entry in the medical lexicon, and the American Academy of Pediatrics describes it as follows: “When adolescents and teens who spend time on social media begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression as a result of “the intensity of the online world .” Aspects of social media that contribute to Facebook depression are friend tallies, status updates, and pictures of friends enjoying themselves, all of which can make children with negative self-images feel worse about themselves. Earlier this month, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram was particularly fingered in the death of Molly Russell by a London coroner, Andrew Walker.

The coroner said her death was “ an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and negative effects of online content.” According to him, the content Molly viewed on platforms like Instagram and Pinterest was not safe and should not have been available for a child to see. Following the ruling, Matthew P. Bergman, founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC) noted that Molly Russell’s case was the first time that a social media platform has been adjudicated to have caused the death of a child. According to him, “Russell’s death was not a coincidence nor an accident. It is a direct result of the design decisions that Meta made maximise user engagement over safety, and failure to provide safeguards for vulnerable kids.” Russell’s case is not unique, as SMVLC has an ongoing lawsuit against social media platforms in the US for the death of 11year-old Selina Rodriguez, who was so addicted to Instagram and Snapchat that she developed sleeping disorders, and depression, which eventually caused her death.

By: Raphael Pepple