Is Social Media a Trapdoor? When Opinions Cost More Than Words

In our world today, especially in my country, it's more or less like we're walking on eggshells whenever we express ourselves online, and the reason why I said that isn't far-fetched: one's life can be changed or ruined from just one tweet, one post, or one comment. And this has got me thinking, given the fact that social media used to be a safe place to share one's thoughts freely, Fast forward to the present day: it's no different from a minefield with the way you can be called out both online and physically for stating your opinion, and all of this has made him begin to wonder if people's opinions or ideals shared on social media are enough grounds for dismissal from school, a job, or even a relationship.

The truth is that it's not quite easy to take a side regarding this matter because it's a tough one and a double-edged sword. On one side, we can all understand that companies usually have values they uphold, just like we do as individuals, and these values are often related to the employee before they get on board the organization. So when a staff member is punished for breaching one of those values, it's quite difficult to know what to do. But if we're to tell ourselves the truth, does an organization have the right to punish someone for expressing their opinion? Especially when such doesn't hurt or violate anyone's rights.

You can imagine an employee being sacked because they posted something that doesn't align with their workplace ideology or a student getting expelled for joining a protest online against a politician. When such an opinion is shared in those people's personal space and outside work or school hours, I don't think they should get punished for it, and doing so is like we're gradually letting professional expectations bridge our personal freedom.

I really hope you won't get me wrong, because I'm not a supporter of hate speech or any form of intimidating comments; all I'm saying is that the consequences of such should be fair and not rooted in fear or control, but then, like I said, this is a two-way thing. I remember during the time I was to be employed as a teacher in Lagos State, we were told as a staff we're not allowed to pick sides in politics or indulge in any political act. The same can be found in the organisations ethics, and when a particular school principal breached that policy during the last election, she was stripped of her position and transferred to a more rural school, and that's even despite the fact that the statement she made was in favor of the ruling party.

Another such angle was the story I read online about a lady whose fiancé called off their wedding due to what he saw her comment in a Facebook post some months back. Apparently, the post was talking about a cheating husband and what his habit cost their family, and this lady in question innocently dropped a comment that, assuming she's the one whose husband did such, she would have just been poisoning him gradually until he dropped dead one day without anyone knowing, because she'll keep smiling with him and giving him her best until she makes sure she ends his life.

It was a disturbing thing to read, but then, despite the fact that we can try to say why the guy is afraid or if he has plans to cheat, In the marriage, that shouldn't make us blind to the gravity of what the lady posted, although some people might say it's all cruise, but then even the Bible said that out of the abundance of the heart is where the mouth speaks from, so before she could alter such a statement in her comments, it means it comes from the content of her thoughts and what she's capable of.

In today's world, you'll even find yourself getting arrested for different things due to your opinion shared on social media, and that's why we need to ask if we're truly free to express ourselves or if we're just borrowing freedom on the condition that it doesn't offend the establishment we find ourselves in. And while we're thinking that, we must also know that although there's freedom of speech, that doesn't mean there's freedom from consequences, so we should be mindful of what we say, and so the consequences must be fair. We should work on correcting the current notion of social media being a trapdoor, because one single misstep or one different opinion has, over time, sent people's lives crashing down. We can do better, and it should start today.

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All photos are taken and edited on canva.

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