It is amazing how the world has evolved from the Stone age era, the jet age, and recently the computer age. The 21st Century has witnessed a massive explosion in information and communication technologies, so much so that old ways of communicating has been rendered obsolete and extinct. Somebody will be tagged old-fashioned and backward if such person is not abreast or adaptive of the recent innovations and changes in ICT. In our world today, if you are not computer literate, you’re perceived as backward. If you cannot use the Internet or surf the net, you are naive. People who couldn’t accept the innovative changes and acquire information and technological skills are seen as too traditional, timid, or may be having inferiority complex attitudes.
The educational sector has embraced these changes wholeheartedly. It has been a huge blessing to the daily running, administration and management of our academic institutions. ICT has made works and research a lot easier in all facets of the educational sector and larger society. Although, the advantages and benefits far supersede the downsides, it brings to serious concern the problems and negative effects brought by their indulgences. The educational sector has been hit throughout history with issues of mass failures, and poor performances. While there may be other internal factors that may also have been responsible for the dismal records, it is actually obvious and crystal clear that the over-use of information and technology gadgets also has their own share of the spoils. The main actors in the abuse of ICT has been the young ones, who populate our universities, secondary, and primary schools, or generally speaking, the younger generation. As information and technological innovations and inventions continue hitting the rooftops over the years, our young ones are adaptive to the changes, and also following the trends, even to the point of getting addicted to their use. Truly, ICT rules the world today. It is simply sophisticated. And we have passed the old era. What we have been dealing with and experiencing on the negative side is the disadvantages of ICT, brought by their abuse.
One of the technological innovations of the 21st Century is the social networks. Social media occupies a top spot in the ladder of information and technology abuses. It is used by billions of people worldwide, and has either affected people’s lives positively or negatively. The young ones came to love social media. They are the largest users of the networks. With the advent of social media, the academic performances of the young ones in school began to spiral down. They spend blocks of time on the networks to the detriment of their academics., to the extent that most ended up getting addicted to them. We started dealing with mass failures, Cyber crimes, some wayward behaviours and so on. Before the advent of social networks, it was the television. Although, television is also addictive, and has remained with us over the years, the social media exerts far more influence on the world’s populace.
Academic performances has gone sour and no more praise-worthy. The 2021 UTME conducted, received a lot of reactions from candidates, parents and the general public. The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), on June 25th 2021, released the first batch of results of candidates who sat for the examination. Some candidates expressed satisfaction with their scores, while others expressed disappointment on the results. According to the results released by JAMB, it was revealed that less than 500 candidates also scored above 300 marks. Too bad! If such abysmal performances can be recorded in an external examination like UTME, what becomes of WAEC, NECO and others? It is very sad to picture. But a lot of factors have been blamed as responsible. Very notable among them is the over-indulgence and addiction to social applications. There are too many social networks and Apps available today., enough to make one forget oneself or what one is doing. From Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, WhatsApp, Twitter, name them. The list is endless. What about the numerous gaming Apps available, breathtaking and captivating enough to make one get addicted? You can imagine what the young generations of today are dealing with if you know what it feels like. So many things distracting them. As a result of these distractions, those of them pursuing academic careers may start seeing academics works as boring, uninteresting and old fashioned. They will jettison their books for days running into months, and bury their heads into social media, wasting lots of time and energies.
Another factor responsible for the poor academic outcomes is the life of glamour and luxuries portrayed in the media by men and women of high class status, the celebrities etc, and promoted with nothing other than the almighty social networks. So, we can perceive that the social media is at the centre of all these. The young ones viewing these can get carried away or deceived. They will think that life of high class is all that matters. They will think all that glitters is gold. They will admire these men and women of substances, whose source of wealth they don’t know, and may be living fake lives. What will follow is that some developed cravings for riches and start looking for means to get quick money and wealth, abandoning other facet of their lives that are important, like their education. It is really a big pity, but what can we do? We can only try and employ self control and wisdom while dealing with social networks in our daily living. Self-control and wisdom is needed if we want to win the battle. There is need for corporate organizations, individuals and the government to sensitize the young ones very well on the importance of education and its benefits. This is very crucial because the mentality of most of the young generations has been eroded.
• Kingsley Ndubuisi Onwe writes from Enugu.