A few days ago, a clip of Kenyan twins who claimed to have fallen in love with each other circulated online after one of the twins decided to share their story through a tik-tok video. The twins shared how they had a strong bond since childhood and as they grew up, they engaged in a romantic relationship. And that it was because of this that their parents disowned them since it was taboo for blood relatives to be intimate. They claimed to have later gotten married and that they even sired a child together. However, when their story received backlash, they later came out claiming that what they said was not true and that they had lied because they wanted to promote a show they intended to launch. With social media becoming more and more popular, chasing fame has become common among social media users. People are pursuing fame and are plainly spreading false information all in the name of gaining followers. Stella Nabateregga, a strong social media user, believes the rapid development of different platforms of social media has also increased the spread of fake news, and it’s affecting society in ways such as increase in group polarisation, reducing trust and undermining civil society. In her opinion, however, it is very wrong to spread such incorrect information in the name of getting followers. Rogers Ndemezo, a sales agent, shares his view saying that misuse of social media sets a bad precedent, especially through acts like cyberbullying, social media trolls, among others, which according to him undermines the importance of digital evolution and purpose for the wrong reasons. “Digital abuse may lead to moral and cultural degeneration, especially for users that post explicit content with aims of attracting likes and more followers,” he says. He adds that such exploitation of social media platforms has the potential to cause depression, character assassination, tensions, fear, anxiety, among others, from the users that post falsehoods and misguided information to their followers for wrong reasons. For Ange Sibo Uwizirerera, a children’s rights activist, misusing social media in such a manner is wrong on so many levels. “People do not have the right to lie to society irrespective of their reasons. This is disrespectful to them and their families. It is fraud, but this reflects poor upbringing for some people too, for sure there are so many negative effects on society,” she says. Peter Nkurunziza, a communications person for a local non-government organisation, says he doesn’t think it’s right for people to do anything just to attract followers on any social media platform. “Just be you, do your thing, do not live a fake life just in the name of getting followers because at the end of the day it’s your life and it’s what it is, lying on social media will not help you in any way. You realise that when you do something and you get a lot of followers someone else might do something more dangerous or something that is even a crime to get those followers too and that is very bad,” he says. The impact of this, Nkurunziza adds, is that it has made people believe that they cannot live their life out of social media. “People will do anything to please internet users which isn’t right, they will spend a lot of money to go to fancy places just to take photos yet in real life they are struggling. But this is not right, people just need to be themselves, live their lives without trying to impress anyone.”
