Hey guys! It is the social media age. Practically everyone with a smart phone is now a writer and everyone is a publisher. Before now, there was one very important guy between the writer and the publisher. He was king of the newsroom. He was called 'Editor'. His job was to make sure that whatever the public read was as much as possible factual and that there was balance in the story that his newspaper told. Every great newspaper was built on its credibility. It was the job of the editor to ask the critical questions: What? Who? Where? How? Why? I used to consider editors the most powerful men and women in any nation.
That day is gone and all that appears to be history. Very few people these days get their news from any newspaper. Very few watch TV except for Telemundo, Zee World, African Magic and Premier League. People do not even talk anymore. They 'chat'. Everyone is on WhatsApp, the "wicked" app owned by Mark Zuckerberg who also owns Facebook.
Twenty-four hours a day, news, photos, videos, gospel, lies, sex and mischief continue to stream in on WhatsApp. If you are not careful, you get hooked, swallow it all and suffer the constipation.
On WhatsApp now, there is a platform for your village, your town, your old school mates, your church group, your colleagues at work, your drinking partners, the pepper-soup joint you belong to, etc. Every day, you must check all the platforms. It is never ending. People are begging you on WhatsApp… people are toasting you on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp, the free messaging and video calling app is a leveler. It is the app you turn to every morning before anything else. It is said to be used by over two billion people in more than 180 countries. The users include students, and their teachers, nurses and doctors, plumbers, vulcanizers, market women, taxi drivers, lawyers, pastors, choir girls and prostitutes, politicians and voters et al. WhatsApp is so simple that anybody can use it. It is reliable, cheap and private, so you can easily keep in touch with anybody. WhatsApp works across mobile and desktop even on slow connections, with no subscription fees.
The incredible thing about WhatsApp is that it knows no boundaries. You can be reached on your very same number anywhere on earth at practically no cost. Your personal messages and calls to anyone on WhatsApp are said to be end-to-end encrypted. In other words, no one outside of your chats, not even WhatsApp, can read or listen to your jive. So, you can gossip as much as you want and tell as many lies as you want and curse anybody as much as you like and be as raunchy and naked as you ever dreamed of on WhatsApp and the world will continue to rock on! What of the famous WhatsApp video calls? Hmmmm! You can see everything and practically do everything and its no one's business.
How else do you know whether "super cop", Abba Kyari is today in police cell, with the NDLEA or has joined his guy, Hushpuppy in a beautiful FBI cell in America if you are not on WhatsApp? Tell me how you will know whether Bobrisky in old age, has changed his mind and has decided to go back to being a man.
If you are not on WhatsApp, how do you know who the Jagaban Borgu, the Asiwaju of Lagos and the man whose ambition is to rule Nigeria, is visiting today? How do you confirm if he is truly peeing in his pants?
Can you believe that for several months, I was begging my guy, Aubameyang to bang in some goals for my dear Arsenal and he was running around the football field like a chicken with long neck and Arsenal was gradually heading for relegation. Now, Auba walks away from Arsenal without saying "Bye-Bye" and is slamming the goals for Barcelona and expects me to be happy. You think I am talking nonsense? It's all on WhatsApp!
Go to any social gathering these days and everybody is typing on his little machine, 'snapping' photos, posting or 'chatting'. Everyone is spreading information for good or for evil with all the biases that human beings have. There are no rules and anyone can be as nasty as he wants to be, as raw as he chooses to be and as hateful as he decides to be.
Last week, the world woke up to the horror that Russian President, Vladmir Putin had ordered the full military invasion of his neighbouring nation of Ukraine. The bombing, the killing, the dyeing, the horrendous destruction is all there on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp with its two billion users has become so terrifyingly powerful. It has become clear that Mark Zuckerberg has in his hands data that can be deployed to elect leaders anywhere and to remove them if it becomes necessary. WhatsApp is no longer just an app, it is an army. Do not forget that Donald Trump, who no serious person gave a chance, conquered America with a smart phone with the help of his friend, Vladmir Putin. To regulate a behemoth like WhatsApp or not and if yes, how, are questions that the world must struggle with.
As we adjust to a new world, a world in which there soon will be no newspapers as we have known them, no checks and balances as we have known them, no rules or regulations as we have known them, how do we survive?
By the way, have you checked your WhatsApp today?
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