SOCIAL MEDIA USUAGE AND MORAL DECLINE AMONG YOUTHS IN AFRICA

Abstract

The emergence of social media network, an innovation that revitalized the system of communication, interaction and dissemination of information in Africa, is a welcome development. However, access to uncensored contents, and lack of close monitoring of the activities of young people on social media, have rather affected the morality of the youths. Thus negating the gains associated with its entrant into the African soil.  This paper therefore, examined how social media usage has impinged and occasioned the total moral collapse seen among youths in Africa today. Using descriptive phenomenology and sociological methods, the work observed that there is a steady departure from the moral norm and values Africans are known for, due to the misguided usage of social media. Today, African society has witnessed brain drain, increase in crime rate, debased moral behaviours, such as pornography and maturation, and the seeming erosion of the sanctity of life. The research, recommended that parents and guardians, should endeavour to monitor the activities of young ones on social media to avoid abuse. Social media should rather be used to enhance the academic performance of youths, improve their moral aptitude and interact rightly with their peers. The roles of religious leaders, teachers and policy makers, in addressing the social media challenge and moral flight of the young Africans, are quintessential to addressing the menace. All hands must be on deck in ameliorating the negative impacts of social media on youths for a better African society.