Nollywood actress Mary Njoku has raised concerns over the increasing misuse of social media, lamenting the shift from empathy to a focus on content creation.
Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, Njoku questioned the current direction of online engagement.
She wrote, “What exactly are we turning into? Social media should be a powerful tool. Around the world, it has been used to rewrite narratives, to expose injustice, to amplify activism, to spark nation-building. It has united communities, toppled corrupt systems, and given a voice to the voiceless.
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“But here at home, we seem to be using it differently. For us, the hunger for clout, for virality, for instant fame has started to cloud our humanity. It has drowned out empathy.”
The actress also criticised the trend of turning tragedy and pain into entertainment, where suffering is often packaged as skits.
“Sometimes I open my feed and all I see is noise. Pain broadcast like entertainment. Suffering is packaged as skits. I find myself logging off, choosing instead to face my real world. To solve real problems, with real people, in real time,” she added.
She further questioned the moral implications of the constant drive for viral content: “What are we becoming, if every tragedy must first become a trending video? What are we becoming, if every cry is just background noise for someone else’s content calendar?”
Mary Njoku concluded by urging Nigerians to reflect before posting or sharing content online: “We must pause. We must breathe. We must search inside for the human we are at risk of losing. Before you type, before you record, before you upload, STOP. Please STOP and ask yourself: Am I amplifying humanity, or am I stripping it away? We are still human in this country… aren’t we?”
