Chinamasa's WhatsApp work clearly cut out

I was pleased to learn that Zimbabwe now has an entire ministry dedicated to dealing with cyber security. This is progressive and shows that President Mugabe is in touch with the times we live in.

The world has gone digital. Look at how traditional media houses are catching on to digital platforms. Consider how companies are moving fast to beef up digital marketing.

This goes to show that the globe has graduated into a new era of innovation that all of us must embrace. It brings currency to the ages-old dictum "adapt or die".

Which brings me to the point of my intervention. As I mentioned earlier, I am pleased President Mugabe has appointed Minister Patrick Chinamasa to deal with cyber issues. Minister Chinamasa will handle all matters cyber, including delicts and outright criminal shenanigans of some of our less-adept netizens. Many have suffered at the hands of such people, and it is the duty of the State to protect its citizenry.

Though many have mimicked Minister Chinamasa, giving him all manner of monikers, I believe his is a big ministry with a big mandate. Remember, I said the world has gone digital. In a sense, this suggests society and cultural norms are no longer defined by traditional human interactions.

Platforms like WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook now help shape societal behaviour in a big way, making them the most profound socialisation agents of our time.

This is where Minister Chinamasa steps in. The way our children and, indeed, adults are socialised depends on several agents, among them media, school and the home environment.

In the past, many parents deemed television the foremost negative agent in their children's development. Talk of dirty movies, filthy musical lyrics; this all bombarded those tender eyes and ears. Today social media has pretty much substituted TV. This time, the influence is greater.

Television is transient. Yet, social media has sustained messages that can be engrained in one's sub-conscience through repetition and its twin, auto-suggestion. Ever wondered how you developed that fashion sense, or where your tastes in different affairs came from?

You guessed right: It is the power of repetition and auto-suggestion. That fashion sense was thrown at you by media or what you saw in society. You kept seeing it until images were imprinted on your sub-conscience. You then made a purchase because of auto-suggestion.

This effect is true of social media. It is personal and has the power of repetition. Many people have smart phones and thus spend long periods on social media. They have sub-consciously saturated their minds with certain patterns of messages/images that now seem normal and socially acceptable.

This is why some believe almost every communication on WhatsApp or Facebook no matter how ludicrous.

Their minds have been conditioned, configured in a certain way.

Minister Chinamasa is the good-bad cop. His first mission is to tear down negative mental constructions that social media has been used to create.

The second is to propagate positives in our cyberspace. Social media is not entirely bad, but has many a time been manipulated to meet self-serving interests of certain characters.

It can, however, be harnessed for development and constructive discourse.

Above all, it can be a tool of social cohesion.

The new ministry is important as it will determine how our society, its norms and values and socialisation are shaped in this new digital society we now live in.

Haroon wrote this for The Sunday Mail via email

Platforms like WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook now help shape societal behaviour in a big way, making them the most profound socialisation agents of our time.