Like repressive governments before it, Abiy’s administration seeks to control the narrative by controlling that most democratic of news-dissemination tools: social media
social media
Posted inBusiness
Watch out! There’s a platform business coming for you
Businesses need to shift to a customer-centric approach and evolve from the old pipe model
Posted inMedia
Social media is a valuable tool for improving health awareness in Africa
The combination of flexible targetability, low cost and direct communication make for an effective way to improve education and address individual needs
Posted inGeneral
Conspiracy theories: Do your research and question ‘facts’
People’s powerful belief in their views, in defiance of specialists in a subject, are amplified by social media and are then viewed as fact — when in fact it’s false
Posted inLifestyle
Does philosophy have a role in society?
Philosophers have a different take on current affairs and pose their own problems. They point out the distance between truth and power. Then it is up to us to choose
Posted inGeneral
Censorship is on the horizon if we don’t object
The increasingly undemocratic actions of the ANC must be exposed before we become a totalitarian state.
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics, Tech
New walls in cyberspace: Internet shutdowns and authoritarianism in Africa
Cutting off communication has become a favourite ploy of some of the continent’s Big Men. Ironically, this harms their standing in the long term Although the Berlin Wall was toppled 30 years ago, new walls have continued to crop up around the world — virtual ones that block or limit internet access to avert political […]
Posted inEquality, General, Media, Tech
People are not as free as they think they are
Some (older) people may recall the 1983 Warner Brothers mockumentary, Zelig, written by, and starring Woody Allen, together with Mia Farrow as the psychiatrist who treats him for his strange disorder. Lately I have been thinking a lot about this classic portrayal of conformism on the part of a man who manifested his adaptation to […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, Tech
The world has become an uncertain and ugly place
Several things I have read recently have impressed upon me that, despite developments (particularly in the field of technology) that are bound to excite some people, in some respects the world has become more uncertain and “ugly” than ever before. To be sure, it has always been uncertain in an existential sense – no one […]
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
Defending the Self(ie)
It’s been written about before, many a time, but I’d like to take an alternate view on that snap happy habit of taking a picture of yourself. You may call it narcissism but I have a different view. Heck, Kim Kardashian West published an entire book of her own, so why don’t we just pay attention […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics
The Ntokozo Qwabe Ashleigh Schultz affair: Notes for a screenplay
Antoinette put down her waiter’s tray filled with dirty plates from customer’s tables and softly murmured the words, “We will give tip when you return the land.” She stared at these words on the crumpled piece of paper in her hand and began to laugh. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the […]
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
Social media has made us lonelier and more neurotic than ever before
I am guilty of posting some of those “Look at my life” statuses, the “I am so witty” tweet and the occasional “My food is calorific” Instagram post. But frivolousness aside, why is it that we live in a world where we’re more likely to put up a Facebook status about self-harm than actually talk […]