Influence of Social Media on Society The Double Take column looks at a single topic from an African and Chinese perspective. This month we discuss how people perceive the role of social media.

In my opinion, social media can have both favorable and unfavorable consequences on our society. Taking the case of the COVID-19 pandemic as an illustration when most people across the world stayed at home and therefore turned to social media as a source of news, information, shopping, and also entertainment.

Children who could not go to school used social media to learn and keep themselves occupied. Business organizations turned to social media to stay afloat and appeal to their customers to make profits. My government in Kenya was not left behind as they also turned to social media in communicating with the citizenry to push the stay-at-home campaign, hand washing and other public health messages. Global organizations such as the World Health Organization also used social media in advocating for responsible health habits across the world.

However, during this time we also saw the ugly side of social media - the rise in fake news, misinformation, hate messages and some other reckless user behaviors such as cyberbullying and stigmatization. The rise of misinformation on the social media platforms, for example, led to panic in the Kenyan society with some people believing some of these myths such as drinking black tea to cure the coronavirus, or that alcohol could be used as a throat sanitizer. Increased cases of cyberbullying affected people negatively, with many of the youth falling into depression and some even committing suicide.

The Kenyan Government has gotten strict in enforcing the cyber law and also in using social media to create awareness of the law to the public. This has led the public to be more conscious in their online conduct and to raise alarms over fake news and misinformation being peddled online.

So yes... social media has had a very positive influence in society, especially during the COVID- 19 pandemic, but we have to be very conscious of how we apply it for the advancement of our society.