Social media stresses

Last week, South African music diva Makhadzi wrote a touching post on her Facebook page about the reality of many celebrities who suffer in silence. Her post came barely a day after the Rainbow nation had lost one of its popular hip-hop artists, Ricky Rick, to suicide.

Makhadzi’s powerful post titled ‘Celebrities In Silent Distress’ reads in part:

“At this stage in my life, I will never judge anyone or any celebrity for taking their life. We don’t have people to talk to because most of the people who are supposed to be our closest friends are the ones who betray us the most.

“When they should be helping us, instead they go behind our backs broadcasting and bragging about our tough situations just to prove that they know us better.”

In Makhadzi’s reasoning, public figures have nowhere to run to when they are faced with problems because they are surrounded by traitors who are only interested to break the news about their suffering for clout.

Today, the advent of technology, particularly the Internet and social media, has birthed a number of self-regulated news sites and journalists without portfolio who spread negative information about celebrities.

Everyone has become a ‘news reporter’, taken by the events to publish both unverified news and half-baked reports about celebrities without following ethics like verifying information with the people involved. Instead, some page administrators on social media are only interested in gossip or breaking scandals about celebrities such as musicians.

In Malawi, negative stories about musicians whose marriages or love relationships have collapsed have been reported massively and carelessly with disregard of victims’ emotional feelings. As a result, this has triggered unnecessary stress levels and depression among them.

Writing in one of his entries on mental health, sociologist Chiwoza Bandawe from the Kamuzu College of Health Sciences said fake news about others can lead to depression, anxiety or even suicide.

“There is more cyber bullying taking place via social media nowadays. Such stories go far and wide. Let’s normalise to check sources before we forward false stories.

“Let us not spread lies about others. We can be like the wind helping such stories spread far and contributing to compromising another person’s mental health,” said Bandawe.

He encouraged people to check on one other and render support to those affected by negative news or publicity.

In fact, the zeal to appear to be abreast with current affairs or the first to break the news, has increased the tendencies of publishing false or undesirable material which triggers stress and threaten lives of many people, especially celebrities, on social media, he noted.

While nobody intends to put his or her private life in shame, some people and social media pages want to capitalise on other people’s desperation and scandals to make a name online. Others are simply embroiled in gossip and scandals to shame people.

For example, if a marriage or love affair of musician X hits the rock, the news is all over social media where the victims suffer the most disturbing slander. If nudes of subject B are leaked, people are quick to share them including on social media applications including WhatsApp in a matter of seconds, minutes and hours. This is how pitiful and untrustworthy people have become, fueling emotional distress among the people involved, including family members.

“Social media has potential to trigger stress among people involved in a particular scandal, propaganda or false publication of news. Generally, negative reports that the social media spread have a psychological impact on people who are directly or indirectly involved.

For instance, children of the subjects involved in negative publicity suffer emotional torture. And this affects their social and academic development,” says Prescott Thawe, a Psychosocial expert working with Education Expertise Development Foundation (EEDF).

He advises people affected with negative publicity to avoid social media in time of crisis.

“Since social media has potential to aggravate anxiety and stress, people affected by any negative news or content on social media should be quick to accept the situation and distance themselves from such platforms. They should also ignore people who spread the negative publicity. If they feel stressed and depressed they should seek help immediately from trusted friends, family members or health experts,” says Thawe, adding that acceptance and seeking help is a first line of defense against psychosocial challenges. However, National Police spokesperson James Kadadzera says, in strongest of terms, that it is a crime to produce, publish or distribute offensive materials such as pornographics and false news which have potential to damage people’s emotional well-being.