How social media disconnects us from God and Man, by Victor Agboga

Never has the human race been more connected than in our 21st century. The digital explosion of information technology in our epoch has indeed made the world a global village. Social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram, Snapchat etc, bring the world at our doorstep, and put almost all the information we need literally at our finger tips.



This technology boom has also contributed immensely to the growth and development of several businesses across globe. Social media outlets are now used as effective platforms to advertise goods and services.

However, these outlets are like the biblical double-edged sword, in the sense that they can be used both benevolently and otherwise.


Often times than not, they connect us with those far away but disconnect us from those close by: our roommates, family, next-door neigbours, colleagues, and shocking from God.

Like alcohol, over-indulging in them makes us loose our sense of time, priority, place and self. I have heard and have seen a number of people who sustained serious injuries and those who even lost their lives, because they were engrossed with their activities on social media and failed to see danger coming. YouTube has a compilation video of persons who lost their lives life  while trying to take ultimate selfies to be upload on Instagram and Facebook.

"I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots."

 These words of the world renowned Albert Einstein are sadly materializing in our contemporary society.

A number of people have confessed that the first thing they do when they wake in the morning is pick up their mobile gadget and check the social media handles. They do this even before thanking their creator for the opportunity of a new day!


A lot of people also take their gadgets to church not to record the sermon of the pastor but to distract themselves when they feel the service is getting to long.

Without knowing, we gradually exalt social media above every other thing including God! Social media has become our idol.

Children greet their friends on social media but forget to say "good morning" to their parents.

Siblings sit in the sitting-room not bantering with each other but busy with their phones and tabs chatting with known and unknown people outside.

Several students fail their exams because they cannot take their fingers off their phones. If only they spend those hours with their books, things would have been better.

"Leave Facebook and face your book," shouted a concerned father at his teenager son.

Social media limit human to human contact and give cowards opportunities to evade confrontations.

Instead of facing his allegedly wayward wife, a man preferred to take the cowardly option of running to social media to tell the world but his marital crisis. And she in return, responded to the accusations through a similar medium.

The problem might have been solved if both parties came together face-to-face to confront each other and argue things out.

Another thing that social media do to us is that they are capable of disconnecting you from yourself. We hardly have time to meditate, take a walk or just stay silent in deep thought. Any free space and spare time we have is spent on Facebook or Whatsapp.

I am neither trying to close business for Mark Zuckerberg nor send the manufacturers of mobile gadgets out of the market, but simply wish to advise that we use social media moderately, wisely and judiciously. Virtue lies in the middle as the Greek philosophers would say; it shouldn't be too much or too little. Social media is great, I actually make a living out of it!