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00:00I've been on social media for close to seven years.
00:06I've been on social media as far back as 2009.
00:14I've been on social media for a while, as long as I can remember, if YouTube counts as social media.
00:30Social media. An internet-based form of communication which saw the light of day in 1997 with the platform Six Degrees.
00:51Today it has become the communication mode of choice for most people.
00:57I usually go to Facebook, Whatsapp, TikTok, Instagram and sometimes Twitter.
01:07I use YouTube, I use TikTok, I use Twitter, I use Instagram sometimes and I use Tumblr.
01:17I like to visit TikTok, Whatsapp, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
01:33According to available data, the average person checks their mobile device 160 times a day.
01:43A good chunk of this time is dedicated to online social networks.
01:50Let's say on average maybe four hours, both passive and active, because if you want to look up something on YouTube, that's already time spent.
02:03So passively probably four hours.
02:06It depends on how less busy I am. If I don't have anything doing, I may be on social media as long as I'm idle.
02:18Maybe one day I could be there like five to six hours.
02:22I spend everything very good, about eight hours on social media a day.
02:29You know, I am a lecturer at a seminary, so I create time for research. I create time to be informed of the happenings in the world.
02:37So I must go online to check some of the issues that are actually happening.
02:42Like 20 hours.
02:47Information, insight, entertainment, connections, boredom.
02:54The reasons why people use social media are vast and diverse.
03:00I go to this site mainly for infotainment, to get information about what is happening around me.
03:12And then sometimes I also go there to get entertained by music, by skis.
03:22Well, Twitter especially is usually the place where I get my news from.
03:27When things are trending, it is quite easy to get information from the new topics, hot topics that go on around the world.
03:36It's quite easy to get them from Twitter.
03:38YouTube, I use it to do my research.
03:41I draw as a hobby. Maybe I want to learn some new techniques, some new ways to animate. I use YouTube.
03:49TikTok is the same because I upload content to TikTok.
03:55And if you want content to be seen or maybe get a lot of views, you need to know what is trending on TikTok.
04:04So I need to be there to know the trends to be able to upload good content.
04:08I really like to visit TikTok because it's very interesting.
04:13There are a lot of things. There are fun videos that I watch there, there are educational videos and many more.
04:20And WhatsApp is basically because of chatting purposes with family and friends.
04:28Facebook is just to view people's posts.
04:33Facebook because you can easily reconnect somebody who's contact you lost.
04:40WhatsApp too, I mean videos you communicate and this one is good because you choose the people you communicate with.
04:50Social media platforms were mostly designed to help people connect digitally.
04:56Over time, they have evolved significantly becoming information gathering spaces, retail platforms, 21st century marketing tools.
05:09Social media has changed a lot over the years.
05:13From 2016 to now, I think a lot has evolved.
05:20For example, Internet is more accessible to people.
05:23I think us as Cameroonians, five years ago, a touchscreen phone was not that easy to get your hands on, not even to talk of a computer.
05:34So the accessibility is there, so more people are on the Internet, more content flows on the Internet.
05:41I've witnessed that a lot of people now use these social media handles.
05:47And the content too has also increased in terms of volume.
05:53In the past, you could communicate through text, SMS through text messages.
06:00But today, we have advanced features and applications that we now use.
06:07For example, WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook, and other features and applications are there.
06:14And in the past as well, you only had simple Facebook, Messenger, but today you have Facebook Likes, Messenger Likes, and WhatsApp.
06:24You could just communicate, but today you can do a video call, you can do a conference call, you can do other issues.
06:31So these are all issues of evolution on social media.
06:34There are many sides to social media.
06:38The good, the bad, the ugly.
06:42Speaking of good, social media by virtue of its nature helps create connections, grow businesses, build communities, and a lot more.
06:55Today we hear about artificial intelligence.
06:57There are apps today that are available that can really help you to understand your lectures in class, to understand what the teacher said.
07:06To even do further research to enrich yourself with regards to general knowledge, knowledge of the society, and all that.
07:15And so, yeah, it's really important in that.
07:18Apart from that too, it's a tool that can also help you to sell out yourself.
07:21Today, you can become a millionaire using social media.
07:26One of the advantages of social media as a pastor is for evangelization.
07:34That you can reach many persons with the gospel through social media.
07:40For example, when I do the meditation, I send online many persons who see people are calling and appreciating.
07:48And, you know, the gospel goes beyond.
07:53Through social media, you may get into research, do your findings, and get information that will help you in whatever field you are engaging yourself into.
08:06In this era of globalization, the social media has actually breached learning.
08:13It has brought learning closer to people.
08:16That I am a lecturer here in Kumba, for example.
08:20In the TSA program, I have students in China, in Dubai, in Bamenda, in Zambia, in Egypt.
08:28I am in Kumba, and I teach them online.
08:32So, these are the advantages of social media.
08:36Secondly, it brings you closer to your family members.
08:38Secondly, it brings you closer to your family members.
08:41You are far away, and you can communicate with them.
08:44You can get motivated by success stories on social media that have been put out there by people.
08:55You can also get motivated by influencers, motivational speakers.
09:04A teenager, just like an adult, may be stressed out, and then he or she distracts himself with the internet, WhatsApp, Facebook, and then he forgets some of his predicaments.
09:17So, that is a positive aspect of it.
09:19They learn a lot, they interact with people from different parts of the world, and they are able to make new friends, discover new faces, discover new things and philosophies about life.
09:31On the flip side, social media can take a toll on users, mentally and physically.
09:41One of the characteristics of social media is that it is very, very appealing, and of course, and as a consequence, very addictive.
09:49Most smartphone users, particularly of the younger generation, the teenagers and young adults, will tend to spend a lot of hours on the smartphone and on their screens.
10:05One of the things that happens is that medically, this can affect your ability to reason well later on.
10:14I'm going to explain.
10:16When you spend a lot of hours on the phone, it can affect your sleep quality.
10:21And we know that when you sleep well, you permit your brain to rest well, and therefore, your brain is more productive the next day when you have adequate and good quality sleep.
10:34So when you spend hours, usually in the night or even in the day, on the screen, on social media, what happens is that it keeps the brain in a state of alertness, and so the brain doesn't rest well.
10:48And as a result, poor sleep quality, and as a result, difficulties in concentration, difficulties in memory.
10:57We know that good sleep permits the immune system to function well, good sleep permits the brain to rest and recycle itself, and good sleep permits the rest of the body as a whole to rest and to heal.
11:15So anything that will affect the quality of sleep as well as the quantity of sleep that you get will, in the long run, affect you physically.
11:25That can lead to symptoms of malnutrition.
11:30It can also lead to frequent diseases because we know that when you have a weak immune system, you are easily exposed to developing diseases as a whole.
11:40Maintaining a particular position for individuals who have the predisposition can lead to problems with their joints, joints of the fingers.
11:49But much more, it's at the level of the eyes that we may have some issues.
11:53We know that smartphones emit light at different spectra, and these different light spectra affect the eyes differently.
12:05Prolonged exposition to light can affect the ability of the eyes to accommodate, the ability of the eye to better produce a good image of the world.
12:17So that's why it's advised to avoid screen usage, particularly in the night.
12:22Because we know that when you use a screen in the night, the eye is called upon to do much more work, to focus the light, and that can expose the individual to developing some diseases like me.
12:37It can aggravate some forms of glaucoma.
12:40Another aspect that is also common with individuals who use the screen for long is that they develop headaches.
12:45On social media, the lines between perception and reality are blurred.
12:50Very often, by filters.
12:53People tend to post the best of themselves, or sometimes even exaggerated versions of themselves.
13:00They might talk about their riches, cars that they've rented, they say that they own the cars, and they're usually young people.
13:09So the standard is already raised for these teenagers.
13:13Not just riches, but sometimes beauty as well.
13:15You see people with a lot of filters.
13:18You think that that's what the average human being is supposed to look like.
13:22So the standard is set so high, and the teenagers are rushing to reach those standards which are not obtainable.
13:31And sometimes it can cause them to get depressed.
13:34Sometimes it causes conflict among peers, like who is better or who is worse.
13:41Classifying themselves inside bubbles which don't need to be there.
13:46All of this can act on your mental health, especially when you don't have the means to do that.
13:52You can run into depression.
13:55You can run into anxiety.
13:59You can run into stress and also give you a sense of low self-esteem.
14:05People tend to paint their fake lifestyle on social media.
14:11And the users take them for... to be reality.
14:19Social media today has been linked to low self-esteem.
14:23Always seeing people who are doing so well and having the time of their life, like they say, on social media.
14:30Which does not necessarily reflect the reality.
14:32If not properly handled, it can affect the individual.
14:37And thus can lead to signs like low self-esteem, you know, comparison.
14:42I feel like things I see on Instagram, they're kind of influencing me to like, let me create my own life to be like this.
14:52It's interesting. I would like to be this way. I would like to have this kind of life, this kind of fancy things.
14:57When I watch them, like, you have not done anything. You need to do so many things to get to that life.
15:03There are a lot of things that people showcase on social media, which is not their real lifestyle.
15:09They give you what you want to see and not what they want you to see.
15:17Online social networks have become sources of information for many.
15:22However, misinformation and disinformation are a daily challenge for users.
15:31When we watch videos, post on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, it affects our thinking.
15:39TikTok, people do videos in such a way that there's a desired effect that they want to achieve.
15:47Anybody can post on social media.
15:48If you don't do your research, you might take the wrong information and go and spread it.
15:53And that's how this information is circulating.
15:56Everyone wants to make their websites in such a way that people stay.
16:02They have algorithms which will track the things that you like.
16:06So they'll keep pushing that content towards you so that you stay on the social media in question.
16:12And that in itself does not allow somebody to be able to do their own research,
16:18be able to find things that they want to find, everything is pushed to them.
16:22So they don't develop a habit of looking for things themselves, a habit of independence.
16:28Because they believe that everything needs to come to them.
16:31And the attention span shortens and shortens and shortens.
16:34I mean, people don't read anymore because that end goal is not fast enough for them.
16:42Misinformation. Through social media, people are being misinformed.
16:46And they engage in issues that they were not supposed to.
16:50So that's the negative part of misinformation.
16:52When people post wrong information and people try to believe them, you find the community chaotic.
16:58In fact, there are so many disadvantages of using social media today.
17:04If people who intend and they specialize in misleading people,
17:08you can be misled to the social media information that you get or you read.
17:13Young people are particularly vulnerable on social media.
17:18Their mental health and academic output can become compromised by hours of scrolling.
17:25It leads to moral decadence in the sense that, you know,
17:29teenagers and children are such that when they see things,
17:33they want to really feel the things, like doubting Thomas.
17:35So when they see a lot of negative things on the social media,
17:39like lesbianism, homosexuality, pornography, all of those things,
17:46they will want to imitate. That's a tendency.
17:49And when they imitate, it becomes a serious problem.
17:52It affects the output. It affects.
17:55Even the teacher may be in class teaching, gives an exercise,
17:58and then sits down just browsing, browsing and forgets, loses concentration.
18:02So too much of everything is bad.
18:05The kids and the adolescents are very curious to know certain things,
18:10which is not the right way that they were supposed to go about knowing those things.
18:15I mean, in our days when we were at their level,
18:19there was even nothing like the Android or the Apple or the Google type of stuff
18:26that we can go inside, internet, affordable, a hundred francs,
18:31you have internet in your phone.
18:33But they have all those things now at their disposal,
18:36and then they use it and then they misuse it.
18:39And it's really causing some damage.
18:43When lessons are given, those lessons are supposed to be revised
18:47back at home before they come back to the school for the next lesson.
18:52But when they go back home, most of the time they spend,
18:56they spend it on internet, watching irrelevant videos.
19:01Videos, when I say irrelevant, they are videos that will not help them
19:05insofar as their education is concerned.
19:08Consequently, their performance will obviously drop
19:12because they will not first of all revise what they did the previous day.
19:16They will go into internet navigating on irrelevant sites.
19:21It impacts my education very, very negatively
19:25because the time I need to use to study my book work,
19:28I will use it to be watching things that are not even book related on my phone.
19:33So, it's bad.
19:36Social media can be highly beneficial.
19:40It also can be highly addictive.
19:43Digital etiquette and responsible use can help minimize the negative impacts.
19:51The rule that I usually have for my own self is
19:55do not consume more than what you produce.
20:00That is, what you produce should be the same amount as what you consume.
20:06So, if you're consuming so many dance videos,
20:09you should also produce as many or keep a balance.
20:14You should not just be taking.
20:17You should have some sort of balance between the two
20:20and make an effort to search things up for your own self.
20:25When you see information on social media, you fact check it.
20:29You go to sites which are credible.
20:33Don't just take things at face value because it can be quite dangerous.
20:37And don't take social media such as Instagram as a standard.
20:43You shouldn't take seriously what you see on social media
20:50because if you do that, you will run into a lot of difficult times to strike that balance.
20:56And people can also find this balance if they spend less time on social media.
21:05Because the more time you spend on social media,
21:10the more depressed I think you can become.
21:15The more anxious you will become.
21:19The more stressed you will become.
21:22We realize that maybe 70% of parents
21:27don't really check out on what kids are doing at home.
21:31All they do is, okay, I have paid your fees.
21:34I have bought your books.
21:36You have food in the house to eat.
21:38You have taxi money to go to school.
21:40And then when students come back to the house,
21:43they don't check out what you did in school today.
21:46What you are doing with your free time when you are at home in your room.
21:50Locked up.
21:52They don't even go to knock to see what that child is doing at a certain moment in time.
21:57Those are things that are supposed to be put aside.
21:59Those are things that are supposed to be put in place.
22:02So we keep sensitizing and we keep lobbying for the collaboration of the parents.
22:09Because we cannot deal directly with the kids.
22:11When they leave school, they are no longer with us.
22:13First of all, phones are prohibited in school.
22:16So how are we supposed to know if when they are at home,
22:20they are not using those phones?
22:22So we can only collaborate with the parents in order for us to succeed in this.
22:26And the second thing,
22:28we cannot completely eradicate Android, Apple, Google from those kids.
22:34Because the world now is going digital.
22:37So in one way or the other, we need those gadgets.
22:42We need those kids to use those gadgets.
22:45But it's supposed to be guarded.
22:47Strictly guarded.
22:49Use it to develop yourself.
22:50There are learning platforms today that you can use to learn specific skills.
22:55You can use to develop yourself in specific aspects.
22:59And why not? You can become a content creator.
23:02And through that, you can make income while using social media.
23:08But the key word, I believe, is setting boundaries.
23:13Setting boundaries.
23:15Have a schedule.
23:16I know that maybe I go to school from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
23:21I can permit myself maybe to use the smartphone maybe for one hour,
23:27maybe for two hours.
23:29But it should be for something productive.
23:31I can spend maybe 15 minutes to communicate with my family, with my friends.
23:35But the chunk of the time should be used for something productive.
23:39Learning a skill or maybe content creation.
23:42Why not?
23:44So set the boundaries.
23:46When it's time for social media, it's time for social media.
23:50When the time is up, you move on to something else.
23:53For us adults, the challenge may be, when do I switch off?
23:58Maybe you have constant solicitation on your phone.
24:01Messages keep coming in.
24:03The alerts keep coming in.
24:05You need to know when it's time for family.
24:07You know when it's time maybe for a religious activity.
24:10When it's time to study.
24:12And when it's time for social media, yes, it's time for social media.
24:16And to that, I do what I need to do in a productive manner.
24:19And then I move on to something else.
24:23In the coming days, artificial intelligence will continue to enhance the social media experience,
24:31making it even more attractive for users.
24:36The impact of social media, therefore,
24:39will depend solely on whether the user chooses to control their feed
24:44or simply go with the flow.
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