Support Village Voice News With a Donation of Your Choice.
If you are looking for millennials and Gen Z, you can catch them in the social media square. This is ground zero of their existence. The most educated and informed generations have made the internet, social media and technology akin to the biological adaption process, where the species becomes fitted to its environment. In this case, the demarcated zone with a cellphone, Ipad or desktop provides the opportunity for evolutionary fitness. As a result, this indulgence is no longer a passing engagement-it is as serious as natural selection. Based on this, these generations are incessantly informed and subjected to a plethora of information and educative methods which can render them immune to indoctrination and misinformation designed to achieve narrow and nefarious purposes. Despite this inescapable reality, the old boys’ clubs in all spheres of human existence, continue to put all manner of ‘swars’ at the feet of the clickers who can debunk their foolery with one click. Why can’t they accept that we not encouraging nonsense, censorship and crackdown are your only option.
The Folly of Politicians and Governments
It is also 8:00 am and as the Georgetown sun rises, the government official performs his everyday ritual. He scrolls through his I-phone to check the latest updates on social media. He notices a post from a young employee of his Ministry who debunks claims made by an appointed propaganda Czar. He is upset. He contemplates on how to punish the member of Gen Z. He goes into deep discussions with his Permanent Secretary who is versed in the dark arts of punishing public servants. She scouts the rules on a hunt for the most arcane of them all. Eureka!! It is discovered. It is put to the Minister-‘let us charge her for divulging state secrets’. The nod is given. The little enthusiastic lackey of the Ministry who relishes the role of the bloodsucker who delivers letters of employment death, appears at her desk and demands that she signs. The receipt is acknowledged. The contents are revealed-‘You are hereby charged with divulging state secrets. As consequence, you are suspended pending administrative leave’. As the flabbergasted state employee read through the dreaded and dastardly literary mischief, she remained nonplussed. She scratched her head with her long and colorful nails, reminiscent of Edward Scissors Hand and proceeded to strategize. After several searches on YouTube and Google on how to fight a disciplinary letter, she was ready. Thereafter, on the heels of several Tick Tok videos, several Facebook posts, a few Instagram videos, numerous WhatsApp statuses and a flurry of social media activity on the matter, the letter was rescinded without prejudice due to sheer public pressure. This narration, the demonstration of the dexterity of the most informed and educated generations, is the reason why politicians and governments should not even bother to bamboozle.
Snowflakes and Thin Skins in the Age of Social Media
They cannot take. They hate it. It is a great fact-checker. It is the source of light in the dark corridors of the diabolical machinations of power with dishonorable intentions. In the social media age, there lies Guyana, the land of many thin skins and snowflakes who rage against memes and posts that fail to gentle massage fragile egos. Undoubtedly, the little men and women embrace social media when it suits their narrow political purposes but when ‘likes’ turn to critique, they pout. The most educated generations are not always in the mood for Soviet-style propaganda. When the snowflakes are checked in real-time, there is a resort to a crackdown. However, I should caution-there is no way to stop this train. You either learn the art of competing in the marketplace of ideas or get swept away by the tide. Without a doubt, Snowflakes have had it with the status quo. Cyber-crime legislation is everywhere, even though it purports to be designed for the preservation of peace and order, some parts are being weaponized on the basis of charges such as ‘emotional abuse’.
Modernity has spoken. Despite valiant attempts, the most educated and informed generations shall remain resolute with the internet at their side.
