Garbage In Garbage Out - Technology And The Social Media Are Not Ungodly!

“Is that your Bible?” A pastor asked a member of the congregation who had an iPad in hand with bible software downloaded and installed on it. Paying less attention to the myriad benefits derived from having bible software installed on the member’s phone, the pastor sought to create the impression to the congregation that technology is ungodly; not to sound judgmental but I am expressing my honest sentiment on the matter. We live in a technologically civilised and a fast changing world which requires its constituents to be equally versatile.  Consider the benefits we will yield if we use technology and the social media for its sole purpose, that is, to make life easier and access to information faster.  In our everyday lives however, we tend to prefer especially as Africans to commune physically for meetings even though the social media is an obvious and capable option. Let’s analyse this scenario to paint a clearer picture of what I am seeking to communicate;

An employee in Ghana wakes up as early as 5am to begin his/her day. This employee spends approximately 9 hours of his/her day at work if he/she resumes work at 7am and ends 5pm. It is most likely that he/she per the current economic predicaments he/she faces in Ghana may be working as part-timer elsewhere. Majority of these part-time jobs are flexible and can be executed after work and/or on weekends. That notwithstanding, he/she may have a few roles to play as a member of an association or group for example a member of a Church committee which I must admit requires  much commitment and is a divine task. This employee will have to attend these meetings to facilitate the growth of the Church or whatever group/association he/she finds himself/herself. With respect to meetings, I strongly believe per my experiences as a member of a committee that, the thoughts of individuals on the bone of contention are the sole purpose of such meetings aside meetings that fundamentally require physical presence and effort and applications inluding WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook among others are capable mediums we can employ to hold such meetings. This is to say that, the physical presence of the individual is more or less irrelevant in this regard. This employee however is required to transport himself/herself from his/her current location to commune physically at the meeting place in order to satisfy the requirement of the meeting; that is, the physical presence of the individual plus his thoughts on the matter. What time does he/she have to rest? When does he/she prepare for work the next day? If he/she has children and a family, when does he make time to spend with his family?

This has been and still is the norm in our society especially in the Ghanaian setting. That is explains why it is common to find individuals in the working class boycott such meetings and associations not for the sake of its relevance but for the mere sake of its nature.  Not to discriminate but with respect to societies elsewhere especially the western societies, technology and the social media is employed in the growth of their economy not only for pleasure.

In recent times, individuals become millionaires overnight by just posting a video of their talents on social media; Justin Drew Bieber is a Canadian singer and songwriter who turned out to be a celebrity after a talent manager discovered him through his YouTube videos covering songs in 2007. People even enroll on online schools to read programmes after which a degree of equal gravitas as those who commune physically is conferred on them.

In our society;

Skype – is used to communicate with relatives oversees

WhatsApp – is used to track the failures of our contacts judging from the pictures they use on their profile and most importantly to overcome boredom

Facebook – is used for defamation and propagation of false information in addition to individuals desperately looking for love and to scam.

You tube – also used to follow up on videos of trending talents at the expense of our undiscovered talent

A substantial amount of our time and money is basically used to assist technology and the social media to waste our lives as it were. Be mindful of the fact that the social media in itself is not ungodly and it is solely our decision as users to use this platform as a medium to propagate evil. I doubt that the intention of the developers of such superb applications was to breed immorality and insecurity as against making life easier.

To cut to the chase, the physical presence of individuals pertaining to meetings that involve brainstorming and sharing of ideas does not add anything to the existing knowledge of the individual, it only conveys the person, from his/her current location to a rendezvous, the mind and its thoughts are the ingredients for the growth of every economy regardless of the physical location of the individual.

As usual we are again sitting, this time rather comfortably on a gold mine and naively raising undue judgements against technology and the social media with no idea of its actual worth.

As a writer and an avid technologist, I leave you with our fundamental principle; GIGO – Garbage In Garbage Out.

Enjoy the weekend!

Atsu Dogbey of the Dogbey League