By Bakampa Brian
Baryaguma
The United
Nations recognized the internet as a human right in 2010. This recognition was
prompted by the vital role the internet plays in human development especially, in
today’s highly globalized world. The importance of the internet cannot be
overemphasized. It is a plethora of opportunities in virtually all areas of
human life. Generally speaking, the internet is useful for intellectual growth,
business development, and social interactions. All these are key aspects of
human development.
The World Bank anticipates
that the internet will play an increasingly important role in bridging the
North-South divide (a term used to describe the economic disparity between the
rich countries of Europe and North America vis-à-vis their poor counterparts,
mainly in Africa and South America) by effectively facilitating the transfer of
knowledge and technology to these under-developed societies, thereby
accelerating economic development there.
A remarkable
feature of the internet is the emergence of social media platforms like
WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and several e-mail service providers. Social media
has had a profound influence on communication globally, by enabling
person-to-person exchanges on an unprecedented scale in human history. Today,
people from across the globe, most of who don’t even know each other personally,
are able to communicate with one another instantly, and with much ease. Interesting!
Isn’t it?
A notable aspect
of social media is the existence of “virtual communities,” which are groups of
people coming together, under a common affiliation or agenda. For example, old boys
and girls of academic institutions re-uniting under the institution’s banner,
or like-minded people coming together to champion causes of common concern like
charity, and addressing other social issues. They are “virtual communities”
because they exist in space, since their members are actually long distances
apart from each other in the real world (this explains their virtual nature);
yet are seemingly close to one another on the internet, able to interact and
share information, just like other people who are together physically on ground
(this defines their community status).
But like all
other things, the internet is susceptible to being under-utilized, or outright
abuse, and misuse. My concern today is under-utilization of the internet,
although I must say that internet abuse and misuse are important areas of
concern too. Should we under-utilize the internet, we risk losing a chance to tap
into its full potential to accelerate our development process.
Ugandans are not
using the internet meaningfully. The majority of us just use it for gossiping,
and doing other petty things. I see this happen so much on Facebook and WhatsApp,
which are the most popular social media platforms. Others simply use it to
quarrel with and vent their anger at people, or trends they don’t like, usually
of the government and particular public figures. This would be fine, only if
these angry people went ahead to suggest workable solutions or plausible
alternatives to the matters they complain about. Unfortunately, this is not
done. Mere shouting and hurling insults isn’t developmental.
The internet has
revolutionized communication in terms of speed, cost, and accuracy. This is way
too valuable to ignore or squander. We should use it more productively to
accelerate our development aspirations. It should be used it to exploit the
available opportunities in knowledge acquisition and creation, thus harnessing
our intellectual prowess. It is a vital resource for exploring and harnessing
useful business contacts, markets and trade networks, consequently enabling
technology transfer.
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