Opinion / Columnist
When everyone dreams of being an 'influencer' who will truly change the world?
05 Mar 2022 at 12:40hrs | Views
It is all now about the "glitz and glam"!
We now have a generation that wants to make a living from partying and drinking champagne!
Everyone now dreams of being a "social media influencer" - whose only contribution to the world appears to be nothing more than making huge bucks from frivolity!
Who, then, is going to make a real impact and difference in the world?
Where are the future Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Alexander Fleming, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, and so many more?
From where shall those who truly revolutionarize the world be found?
Are we ever to see truly selfless brave men and women - who are ready to sacrifice everything for the greater good of their communities, countries, or the entire globe - as they fight for the rights of the oppressed and subjugated, even risking everything they own, prepared for prolonged prison life, and placing their very lives on the line?
Can we ever begin to imagine how our lives as a human race were significantly transformed by such innovations as the user-friendly home personal computer, and smartphone, as well as subsequent software as Windows, Facebook, Google, and Twitter - which practically shaped the information communications technology (ICT) world as we know it today?
We are all benefiting today from unbelievable scientific breakthroughs, whose impact has not only enabled the prevention and cure of otherwise horrific and fatal diseases of old, enhanced global travel and communications for ordinary folk, and how to do things faster and more effectively.
Nonetheless, there is one thing undeniably in common with all these real world-changers and influencers - they were never known for their partying and drinking, nor spending their time on frivolous pursuits.
To further buttress my assertion - individuals as Gates, Page, Brin, and Zuckerberg are still very much with us today (with Jobs having lived in the new technological age) and, in fact, ironically, pioneered social media - however, we have never seen them on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok making complete idiots of themselves, in the name of being "influencers".
One can even justifiably say they are all a bunch of nerds!
I have genuinely tried to understand just who and how the so-called "social media influencers" actually positively "influence" - and, in what manner that supposed "influence" transforms the world in any meaningful tangible manner.
As a matter of fact, how does spending one's time drinking and partying - whilst, posting videos and pictures of all these shenanigans, and making some half-drunken statements - honestly act as a positive influence?
Should we, as parents, not be at the forefront of enlightening and educating our children over the pitfalls awaiting them, as well as pure waste of life, in the pursuit of such dreams?
Indeed, there are those who are making millions from these ventures - but, what are financial riches, when one leaves the world in no way intellectually, spiritually, morally, technologically, and scientifically richer?
Maybe, the world actually needs more nerds than what we are currently witnessing!
Let us encourage and motivate our children to understand that there is nothing shameful about being a nerd - and, in fact should cherish such a prospect, as those are the people who have proven, repeatedly over the course of global history, to be the real influencers and world changers.
Let us expose them to these phenomenal men and women - whose works and acts transformed how life is on this planet, in ways never imaginable before - as the people they should emulate and admire.
Let them understand that, there is never any genuine "influence" in wasting one's life drinking and partying on social media, no matter how much they make.
It is not worth it, when they do not leave any lasting legacy - as many supposed "influencers" have come and gone, and apparently also went with their legacies.
© Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice activist, writer, and social commentator. Please feel free to contact him on WhatsApp/Call: +263715667700 / +263782283975, or Calls Only: +263788897936 / +263733399640, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com
We now have a generation that wants to make a living from partying and drinking champagne!
Everyone now dreams of being a "social media influencer" - whose only contribution to the world appears to be nothing more than making huge bucks from frivolity!
Who, then, is going to make a real impact and difference in the world?
Where are the future Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Alexander Fleming, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, and so many more?
From where shall those who truly revolutionarize the world be found?
Are we ever to see truly selfless brave men and women - who are ready to sacrifice everything for the greater good of their communities, countries, or the entire globe - as they fight for the rights of the oppressed and subjugated, even risking everything they own, prepared for prolonged prison life, and placing their very lives on the line?
Can we ever begin to imagine how our lives as a human race were significantly transformed by such innovations as the user-friendly home personal computer, and smartphone, as well as subsequent software as Windows, Facebook, Google, and Twitter - which practically shaped the information communications technology (ICT) world as we know it today?
We are all benefiting today from unbelievable scientific breakthroughs, whose impact has not only enabled the prevention and cure of otherwise horrific and fatal diseases of old, enhanced global travel and communications for ordinary folk, and how to do things faster and more effectively.
Nonetheless, there is one thing undeniably in common with all these real world-changers and influencers - they were never known for their partying and drinking, nor spending their time on frivolous pursuits.
To further buttress my assertion - individuals as Gates, Page, Brin, and Zuckerberg are still very much with us today (with Jobs having lived in the new technological age) and, in fact, ironically, pioneered social media - however, we have never seen them on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok making complete idiots of themselves, in the name of being "influencers".
I have genuinely tried to understand just who and how the so-called "social media influencers" actually positively "influence" - and, in what manner that supposed "influence" transforms the world in any meaningful tangible manner.
As a matter of fact, how does spending one's time drinking and partying - whilst, posting videos and pictures of all these shenanigans, and making some half-drunken statements - honestly act as a positive influence?
Should we, as parents, not be at the forefront of enlightening and educating our children over the pitfalls awaiting them, as well as pure waste of life, in the pursuit of such dreams?
Indeed, there are those who are making millions from these ventures - but, what are financial riches, when one leaves the world in no way intellectually, spiritually, morally, technologically, and scientifically richer?
Maybe, the world actually needs more nerds than what we are currently witnessing!
Let us encourage and motivate our children to understand that there is nothing shameful about being a nerd - and, in fact should cherish such a prospect, as those are the people who have proven, repeatedly over the course of global history, to be the real influencers and world changers.
Let us expose them to these phenomenal men and women - whose works and acts transformed how life is on this planet, in ways never imaginable before - as the people they should emulate and admire.
Let them understand that, there is never any genuine "influence" in wasting one's life drinking and partying on social media, no matter how much they make.
It is not worth it, when they do not leave any lasting legacy - as many supposed "influencers" have come and gone, and apparently also went with their legacies.
© Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice activist, writer, and social commentator. Please feel free to contact him on WhatsApp/Call: +263715667700 / +263782283975, or Calls Only: +263788897936 / +263733399640, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com
Source - Tendai Ruben Mbofana
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