Information is the number one product consumed far greater than other things by human beings.
It has been consumed from the times when it was scarce, to the current reality of information overload. Back in the days, people go through books like encyclopedia to seek information. With the expansion of technologies however, now we can get whatever information we need with simple click and in a blink of an eye.
Ethiopians are no different from the rest of the world in terms of consuming information. However, in my belief at least, we are really different in the interpretation of the information we get and disseminate.
The people have a very unique ways of sharing information. The very social construct of Ethiopians make it easy to exchange information. This socially inter-connected life style has led to easy exchange and spread of information in a very short period of time, with no trouble. Ethiopians more often tend to believe information that they are told by their family members, their neighbours and people that they respect.
As far as I am concerned, people do not seem to verify the truthfulness of the information they receive from people close to them. Not only they believe it, but also retell the stories as they are part of it and often debate and swear to make other people believe it too. I am certain that some of us either participated in this kind of discourse or witnessed other people close to us doing it.
The cultural institutions and customs we have as Ethiopians have played a major role in exchanging information among the people. The traditional coffee ceremony, The "Ideir", "Ikube" and other cultural institutions can be mentioned as examples. Gossip has and still is part and parcel of Ethiopians tradition of information exchange. Some of the accustomed cultural practices, like the traditional coffee ceremony, have in my opinion played a major role in spreading substantiated information throughout the country. Those days were the good old days.
The Culture of gossip and rumors is growing now with the ever thriving technological advances. In the past decades, the emergence of social media, with the likes of Facebook, twitter, instagram among others, has given people a platform to express their ideas as they please and reach vast amount of people.
The social media, as others technologies can be used or abused. In the case of Ethiopia, as there are thousands of people using it to convey positive messages, encourage and educate people of relevant things and perspectives, there are also people with ill perception who are using it to spread hatred, racism, narrow nationalism, divisiveness, and fabricated stories.
In my perspective, the voice of people speaking truth has been outmatched and outnumbered by the number of people who make hate speech in the social medium sphere. People in social media tend to believe whatever is written in it. The number of people that critically read bits of information on social media is diminutive. That is the saddest part. People with tribal mentality on social media spread their hatred openly without a shred of shame what so ever and their voice is often loud.
The General public has lost trust of the mainstream media in the country, which partly plays a major role in deriving people to look other ways like social media, to munch through information that they can accept as true. Unfortunately, the information on social mediums is time and again proven to be trivial. It's not only untrue, but usually raises sensitive issues and make people vulnerable to act emotionally.
We Ethiopians have lots of socio-economic problems to deal with. Tens of millions of people are living under the poverty line. Millions of youth are jobless. The hundreds of thousands of students graduating from the country's universities find it difficult to find jobs in the country. With all these things at play, preaching tribalism, especially on social media, is adversely affecting the people's sense of nationalism and patriotism pose yet another challenge. I call this phenomenon, the rise of absurd rhetoric that does not consider what is best for the country and its peoples.
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