A Peak into Uganda's Social Media Groups

A few years ago, some Ugandans made it a rule that I should write an article of 1000 words everyday for the rest of my life if I am to remain in their group as a member. But then I wondered, If my audience can’t even read 20 words, what shall I do with a “1000” words article? But Lawrence is a tough lad, he insisted on 1000 words. He told me that I should stop writing for those ones and start writing for myself. I broke the rules continuously and they removed me from that group. There are times like now when I think that I miss being part of that group; given chance, I would rejoin it and try my best to adhere.

But before that happens, today I will write about Uganda and its social media groups. This love emanated from my mentor’s commentary that she shared in our WhatsApp group, the need for individuals, companies and nations to use social media diligently and make the best of it, which we have not yet embraced to full capacity. 

Many Ugandans are being weighed down by the burgeon of numerous social media communities. These groups are of tremendous importance to the members but you will agree with me that most associations mean no good to many of their members.

If the uneducated fellows wake up in the morning and hung around on verandas and along the streets, there has emerged a new form of idlers; educated, they wake up every morning, buy or borrow data bundles and “hung out” on their phones.

They are good at greeting while looking for a person to provoke into a conversation.

"mng"

"hi guys"

"gud mng"

"gm"

Then someone posts a funny picture and the madness begins.

The groups are well coordinated and most of them hate sense. They idle throughout the day but if you want to taste their wrath, post anything of more than 2 paragraphs.

In fact some have formed ground rules. They brutally resist sense and you risk being removed for posting much of it. But come on, they remove you in the morning and put you back in the evening because they want numbers to boast of.

The social groups will mostly advertise concerts, house parties, graduations, marriage ceremonies and even death. When they advertise the concerts most of them promise to go, when one of their own loses a relative there is that level of solidarity and a somber mood takes on the day. Then the group administrator suggests that they collect condolence for the bereaved. Such announcement shall be followed by stone silence. After that the fun continues, only 3 out of the 200 attended the burial.

These groups have cliques and they are bound to frequent fights; some are settled by one or two persons quitting the group or a distraction from another member who has not been following the conversation. But they also have a panel of kangaroo judges. They will always point out who was in the wrong, the arbitrators who try to neutralize tense moments and that rude administrator who thinks that he or she is always right.

So today having woken in a lugubrious mood, I thought I would annoy one or two people and get a basis for my article. All I did was open WhatsApp only to be met with a person asking us to join his group of a Houseparty which will be held on 1st April 2021 “Fools Day”. I would have said something worse but I chose the following;

“What do Ugandan youth do in their WhatsApp groups? They create a group everyday but there seems no difference being in one out of 10.

Mark Zuckerberg should put a cost to creating a WhatsApp group and servicing”

And the reply was not as bad as I hoped it would be, “I won’t say anything about your closed retarded mind!!!”.

That was enough to get me started. It also drew me to what a one Muthoni posted in a WhatsApp group asking what has gone wrong with the youth of Mbale;

“Mbale has issues

The youths don’t want to work

They are the ones that like partying every day

They are the ones that negotiate with the club guards to get free entrance

It’s even worse; they enter the club to beg drinks

It’s worse still on women's side, and some men

They offer them the drink; they return it to the counter to get money.”

She was removed from the group.

This fuss about the youth is at times frustrating but maybe some honesty may save a few souls; if we are truly the pillars upon which this nation is set, are we the ones we were waiting for? How shall we manage this nation if the majority youth spend the best part of their time greeting, insulting or praising each other on social? How shall we claim the future and the present if one cannot read 500 words a day? How shall we claim to be the leaders of today if we cannot even read the first page of our constitution.

Don’t we think that we need to be honest with ourselves, the world, the future generations and honest to Golola? We need to tell him that we cannot do any better. We are not merely products of bad education system but we seem to have taken and owned the failed system, we have seized it and we are carrying the bad package to our children and our children’s children but only in a creative way.

Before we can revoke the law that regulates the use of WhatsApp and Facebook, before the president of Uganda can punish you who misuse social media why can’t we repent our ways and learn to engage productively? Can’t we learn from our bad past and correct the present? If those that lived a generation before us faced difficulties accessing information and getting closer to people who matter, we are facing the same difficulty not in accessing people who matter but associating with people that do not matter.

I know that a person reads athousand words expecting to be motivated, inspired or at least exhilarated but today I thought that I could pen down something that can annoy you, move you to action. I wanted that by the time you have finished reading this article, you could have looked for the EXIT button and left the group that does not add any value to you!