“Naturally, people seem to be more open to the advice and recommendations of those with whom they feel connected, whether this feeling of connection is mutual or only one-sided”
I know this young lady who is in her early twenties. It is only about eight or ten years since she relocated from the countryside and still lack much info about real city life. Yes she goes places and she has no trouble in remembering geographic locations. In fact she knows places which we, having lived all our lives in the city have no idea of. Now she deserves all the credit for this because many of us so-called better informed dudes aren’t really better informed. Or what we think is being better informed isn’t that impressive as our real world around which we circulate is so narrow and in ways not easy to articulate, closed in. But this lady could outmaneuver us in things like handling TikTok or other social media platforms.
Someone wrote in a foreign magazine, “I know we’ve joked a lot about this scam, and it’s easy to cast blame, and I don’t want to bring anyone down, but I don’t think we’re addressing the real issue here and it is extremely tragic: No parent should ever be forced to live to see their child become an influencer.” Well back here youngsters even probably in their early teens, seem to be becoming influencers in their own ways! These were kids who should have stayed far away from unregulated platforms like TikTok except in cases where their teachers assign them to fish out info from the social media platforms over the wider web. I haven’t yet amassed the power to stop exclaiming the types of mobile phones these kids toy around. I can’t believe their parents who throw so much money for gadgets they could have had for far lower amounts; perhaps ten times or even more lower! I am not talking about economic stuff, the need to put away some good bucks for those rainy days that probably would come anytime.
It’s about the atmosphere they create around their school kids and peers. We have heard of youngsters from families who couldn’t afford such luxuries feeling depressed and some even trying to bump heads with their parents who monthly scrap through life with no child going hungry, because they are at the level where the next reality might be to just forget about the coupe of meals and try to survive on only one! Those kids flashing the hundred grad mobile phones unluckily subscribe to addresses which do nothing to activate their little brains in the right directions! They unfortunately are influenced by so-called influencers for whom the Alfa & Omega of the whole thing is money and more money. Forget the process and focus on the final goal.
Not veering to far from the issue we raised above maybe saying couple of words about something which seems to be becoming a trend. The word, for some reason or other, is more and more stealing into the headlines, Influencers! Social media influencers! Well, well, well! Maybe we’re trying to catch up with the rest of the world in this sector or have we already caught up with them!
Have I heard some prize presenting event for social media influencers. I never knew there was such a thing as prizes for influencers. What more is happening in this city of ours that I don’t know anything of?
How many so-called influencers really act in ways to remove the darker clouds get thinner the light easily melts through. Things are changing, aren’t they? Have any individuals or groups conducted studies on the social media and the real influence it’s putting on people’s lives at all levels.
So, talking about the young lady we were talking about, a young lady who dropped out having gone only about halfway through her elementary studies, is so fixated on TikTok she could sit for hours and there is no way one can do to convince her that the frequency of her use could be detrimental to her health. ‘What!’ To her that doesn’t make sense at all! All her life in the countryside she has been drinking highly polluted water and gone through it all without as much of a cramp or two and now they are telling her looking at a mobile phone would make her sick! Forget it. No, she wasn’t taking advice from people who she must believe have withered away their younger years. Accidentally one of my eyes have come in contact with what she was watching. I tell you it wasn’t a coincidence you wouldn’t have wanted to experience. I can only hope someone probably her closest friend or a relative for whom she holds great respect.
A few days back a sixth grade teacher was telling us of an experience which should really worry us all parent or no parent since it is one sign of how some of the so called well-to-do parents behave trying to dictate their own rules on those who teach their children. A student who brandishes a mobile set so flashy misbehaves like he most of the time does. The school being a private one the teachers endure some of the things they know are wrong like students misbehaving just to prevent parents from withdrawing their children and immigrating to other schools. The teacher having enough of this student raises his voice and tells him that if he doesn’t behave he’ll report him to the headmaster. So far, not much of a story!
It’s what happened the next day that really makes one’s head reel in all directions. The kid comes with a well-built man dressed in all those flashy attires only those with the extra birr to throw all over the place can manage. He summons the teacher out of the class he was conducting and tells him he was the father of the misbehaving kid. He demands the teacher tell him why he shouted at his son. The teacher said that he kept his cool as best as he can and describes what exactly happened to the aggressive father. “I raised my voice a little because he was disturbing the whole class while I was writing notes on the blackboard. The father growls “You have no right to shout at my son!”
“I told you I didn’t shout at him.”
“I want to talk to the headmaster!” It so happened that the previous day the teacher told his boss the headmaster about the incident. At the headmaster’s office the man goes into a foul-mouthed narrative full of threats that he would take his child out of the school unless the teacher is punished. The headmaster lets him finish and as cool as the coolest thing he tells the man, “There is no reason for our teacher because he did what he was supposed to do. If you think this school is not good, enough for you can go to wherever you want starting this minute. We will see if there are any unpaid dues on you and send you the text message. Please leave now; I have things to do.”
The father’s buff didn’t work and the student continued to come to school.
Who influences the influencers?
BY EPHREM ENDALE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 1 JUNE 2025
