• Because youths turn out to basically live their lives online, they are susceptible to the
dangers that come with it.

By  NGOYA CHANSA –
A typical day for a teen with a smartphone starts out with checking their Facebook status updates, latest news feeds, messages, pictures and so on.
It’s not just the younger generation who get hooked up to the internet, it’s the older generation as well, each carrying their addiction every day in their pockets, handbags, backpacks and in their cars so involved in “connecting” that they seem to neglect the world around them.
Waiting for a bus – check Facebook, riding the bus to work or school it’s Whatsapp, standing in line at the ATM it’s Twitter and from there it doesn’t get any better.
Scrolling the phone or texting while driving with other people or even children in the car, browsing the tablet or phone and reading content in the middle of a church service, gets one heavily engrossed in interacting with friends without actually being anywhere near them.
And while it is all digital and intangible, it creates a sort of man train grained in one’s brain that blinds a person to the world around them.
It’s as if the outside world becomes a shadow in the light of a screen.
One needs something to virtually pull them out of this trance and put them back into the real world.
Undoubtedly while there’s no denying that the internet has its benefits when it comes to research, communication, networking, job searches and so on, there are some individuals whose careers on the internet is part of their job description.
However, with that in mind is a side of social media activity that is a matter of concern. This is where we get too comfortable in the digital space that we forget it is a public domain. It is those comfort levels that make it appear as a “safe space” where we locate like-minded people.
We get so confused and mixed up with the spotlight that we fail to draw the line between just reading the newsand an addiction.
The term Social Media Addiction is a term that is probably beginning to become popular in our society given that people that are glued to their screens at every turn.
It can be safe to say in easy-to-understand explanation that social media addiction is a phrase used to describe someone who habitually spends too much time on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter for example and other forms of social media to a point where it begins to interfere with work, school and even conversation with another person. It is the urge to constantly keep checking their Facebook updates or news feed, chat on whatsapp, check their email for hours on end that it becomes a centre of their lives; nothing else matters or exists when they are in “that moment”.
This behaviour trend cuts across different age groups from working class professionals, to student and housewife in one way or another all are bound to habitually scroll their phones to spend some time on social media.
Because youths turn out to basically live their lives online, they are susceptible to the dangers that come with it.
From observation, cybersex also called ‘sexting’ has become a popular trend among young people in Zambia today.
A lot of time is spent on this particular site that the young person has no time for real meaningful relationships with friends or family.
Another negative pattern is that the internet is influencing young peoples’behaviours’. Because they are networking with “like-minded” people in other locations, young people are easily lured in the latest fashion, latest beats, trends and so on which affect their behaviours’ generally.
A colleague for example, who is a single mum,mentioned that she banned all manner of profane music in her house because her teenage son behaved like he was from another planet.
The music he enjoyed was so noisy that you could not make out the words. In addition, he had a habit of pointing fingers at anyone whenever he spoke without drawing the line between his mother and his peers.
To that effect she banned his type of music in her home and sanity she discloses was restored because not only did he stop using hand gestures whenever he talked, he toned down on his language  by not swearing at his sister out of habit.
Another said her teenage daughter came across an advert on the internet that was offering money to the unemployed in that country in exchange for a donation of their blood. The picture showed people queuing up in hundreds waiting to give their blood in exchange for cash.
Today social media and the internet are flooded with all kinds of trappings for unsuspecting victims. It is unbelievable to see some of the stuff that gets going on social media and is spread across the internet.
Thankfully, it is not too late to address some of these concerns, the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) for instance has set up a Toll free line on all phone networks to address the issue of cybersex. So before too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing, people must learn to have much healthier relationships with their devices by practicing what I would call social media accountability which will demand serious scrutiny of justifications on how you use the internet and for what purposes.
Live life in the present and not on the screen because you live in a real world with real people around you. Remember that it is not wise to have technology replace your relationship with your family, friends and colleagues.
Bear in mind that life is short and if the internet takes the place of your real friends and family, then who’s going to bury you, Facebook? Twitter? Whatsapp?