Social Media Influencer : With Great Influence Comes Great Immaturity

Wazzup Pilipinas !

"I think each one of us should be responsible and accountable to what we say online, especially if it involves other people. We also need to think on when do we tackle concerns privately and when do we drag other people who may be clueless to an issue."

I had to give my reaction to a very recent article that came out just today. It asks us questions but also gives us pieces of advice on how people that have a cloud of influence because of their nature of work should behave or discipline themselves.

Social Media or the Internet has allowed us to reach and communicate with a huge number of people instantly and with very little effort. But it also made it easier for haters, spammers, lurkers, scammers, trolls, and all sorts of online misfits.

You can send an email to several email accounts in just one click of the mouse. That email could contain good news or bad news. That email could promote or demote, make or break, uplift or destroy an individual, product , company or establishment. Combine that with the wide reach of Facebook or Twitter where you could send messages online in seconds. Anything you share, tweet, or like becomes forever a part of the online community. Regardless of how true or false the information may be, the rumors has spread. It already etched a mark in history.


"they are excellent communicators, commands a high level of trust, and have a gift of mass persuasion."

I agree that the two personalities are indeed smart and articulate and that they have the capability to wield words that can slice and dice, and can easily put everyone in submission.

Social media is a powerful tool than can be conveniently used in the coming elections, and even to warn us of impending disasters. It is the ultimate tool to reach a huge audience, which are largely the thinking masses.

Many politicians have hired bloggers and social media promoters to spread good news about them, or perform damage control when needed. I guess the mass release of several positive news about a person will eventually populate the blogosphere with whatever they want people to know.

Many have also used social media to provide information about weather reports or upcoming disasters that could easily be gathered from International sources. To prepare people so that they would have enough supplies to last them, or the opportunity to evacuate as early as possible 

 

One can have the power to do good, or otherwise evil schemes, with social media as well because it can also be used to spread the wrong information to act as a form of brainwashing or deception.  

 

A certain so-called "social media influencer" whom many have highly regarded as a celebrity blogger caused the spreading of an ugly rumor in the guise of a warning to the blogging community. He abused his social media influence to shame the name of the community. In the end, he only tarnished the image of the community we thought he wanted to nurture and protect.

It is arguable if one who spreads "blind items" could be considered despicable or morally obligated.

His intention may have been to give some form of warning to other individuals without clearly identifying the suspected individuals concerned to avoid being charged of libel (but then again he mentioned some of them were formerly part of his team). But the shadow of doubt was cast on every individual, especially those very few who were formerly working for him, and everyone else became a suspect.

Whether it seems almost everyone shared a little bit of common trait of being loot bag lovers or gatecrashers or even freeloaders, the bloggers, not only those that were named in the hate email, deserve a fair scrutiny rather than a trial by publicity among their peers.

Some were carelessly pointing fingers on each other, while trying to figure out who the real culprits are.
With the sudden outbreak of an email sent by a seemingly disgruntled detractor who sent it to more than 400 members of the social media community, and with the denial of the suspected blogger of ever sending it saying it was a mere impersonator, it only adds suspicion that the real spammer could be a great manipulator and con artist with the mechanisms to come up with such a deplorable demolition job. 

Thus we all come to a conclusion that indeed one who makes use or takes advantage of the power of the social media can get away with online mass murder, or worst, his influence becomes a weapon of mass destruction, especially in the hands of an immature person.

Sometimes, with great influence comes great immaturity. Some people never realized that they have abused the power that was given to them by their followers or believers. 

In the effort of trying to clean their image alleged to have been tarnished by impostors and fake representatives, they were willing to throw their dirty laundry to an unsuspecting community.

Were we supposed to wash their dirty laundry for them?