Social media: A double-edged sword for public figures

If only some of our government officials also remembered the power of social media because celebrities have to constantly retract or delete their offensive comments on social media.

How many times has DA’s Helen Zille, ANC’s Fikile Mbalula and, now, Patriotic Alliance’s Gayton McKenzie come under fire for their comments on social media? There is a power in social media that cannot be denied.

We live in the digital age. One can become a media sensation for good or bad deeds.

The very last thing anyone in the limelight wants is for social media users to turn against them.

Social media has become the new barometer of how successful one’s public career can be. Hell hath no fury than angry social media followers. Whatever you do, do not upset the followers. They will end your career in a series of posts.

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In real life, we all talk more than we should at times. When asked about it, we can still deny, deny, deny. But with social media once it’s out there, it’s out there for all to see.

That is the power of screenshots and shares.

The very Cabinet ministers who are trained in social media conduct at the beginning of their term in office, then leave us asking ourselves: why has no-one taken away their devices?

More so when their posts divide the nation. McKenzie’s latest outbursts on the Miss South Africa contestants have led to public figures questioning his views.

Our history is rich, our present needs work but our future is all dependent on us.

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Our claim to fame should be more than hunger, Coups d’état, dictators, rapes, corruption, poverty, Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe. Surely there must be more to offer the world.

Yet the world only knows of the hunger, the conflict and the money African leaders go cap-in-hand to the International Monetary Fund to ask for a further loan, “just to tide us over”.

Never mind the world, us Africans only know of this negative Africa. The matter surrounding Nigerian model Chidimma Vanessa Adetshina participating in Miss SA is an opportunity for learning, growth and policy guidelines. It did not have to become this untidy mess on social media.

People in government have lost their jobs because of silly rhetoric made on social media.

What more of a deterrent do people need to stop using social media to seek for attention in this absurd way. Social media will break a career way before it takes off. People must use it wisely.

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