Mark Wignall | The poison pills of social media

Dr Vivek Murthy is the US surgeon general. One of his main duties is setting consistent health guidance for the public. Just recently, Dr Murthy suggested that ‘warning labels’ be stuck on various social media, especially, as a start, for the adolescents in the nation.

I fully agree with Dr Murthy. In Jamaica, we need to poach some of Murthy’s wisdom and apply it to adults. According to the surgeon general, adolescents are at a unique stage of mental development and need to be protected from, or given guidance on, social media. Unfortunately, Jamaica is lacking in resources which could guide effective protection.

Sure, we could announce a programme, form a board of bright people, suggest words for their mouths, but, in the end, leave the cramped condition of our national mental state just as it has always been. In our case, it would have to be employed on the adult population. A subheading could be for politicians.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine, a policeman, sent me a video clip of a violent scene in the bathroom of his infamous police station. All prisoners were bare-chested. One young man, seemingly in love with violence and sensing weakness in another, viciously punched him, repeatedly on one side of his face. The interaction was carried out to establish who gave orders and who would be the footstool. I felt mentally sickened by the clip.

I called my friend and suggested that he not spread it on social media. I did so because, after viewing it, I watched it about three other times. Think of that. It sickened me. And yet a perverse side of me drove me to it. Again and again.

Recently, I saw a parliamentary interaction between senators Tavares-Finson and Damion Crawford. Tavares-Finson was pointing out that the Smith enquiry into the dubious reasons for the 1976 national state of emergency was available for reading. Whatever were the reasons given for the verbal jigsaw was unimportant to me. What I saw as being left out of the equation is the likelihood that the iteration of the People’s National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) which existed in the 1970s probably does not exist in 2024.

BEST OF THE WORST

On one popular social platform designed to strip bare the mental pugilism of Jamaicans, the best of the worst of us is constantly on display. It cuts across the age divide and, no matter the functional literacy rate among Jamaicans, indications are many more people ought to be headed down the straitjacket aisle.

Criticising social media and placing red flags on them is fraught with danger where it hinges on free speech. Real life is already stressful, and freedom allows us to hide ourselves in much of the trivia and madness promoted by social media.

It seems to me that much of the bad behaviour being displayed on social media between the police and citizens has always been there, but social media may be lending more than just a hand to whatever increase in violent behaviour is seen. Times change, and social media also has the natural ability to affect behaviour.

Step back a little. In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, many in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) found that it was easier to accept that residents in tough, inner-city communities were supporters of their gunmen masters, instead of counting and separating the good from the bad. One action of ‘bad man’ policing was driving around in a community with the recently killed body of notorious gunmen. The body was spread across the front of an army Jeep and it was driven around as if the police were selling fresh callaloo.

Because there were no smartphones and social media, whenever someone called a radio programme to complain about such a matter, it was always denied by the officer rank of the JCF. I saw such a display in a ‘war zone’ in the mid-1990s. When I called a radio programme to tell what I saw, then Commissioner of Police Colonel McMillan called me a liar. On radio. He had to do this, otherwise the whole police narrative would be knotted up in barbed wire.

MISINFORMATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Sometime prior to the 2016 general election, Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn lost her cool in a telephone voice clip meant for the ear of one of her councillors. I wrote about it. The lady had let loose with some hot Jamaican-ese. Let that remain in the past. Or, should it?

Recently, I have noticed that her voice has been placed on social media but, this time around, the words are the same, the voice is the same, the person owning the voice still remains, but, so far, I have counted three JLP pics as claiming ownership. In another case, a PNP gentleman aiming for another shot at MP glory has used the voice on behalf of his political efforts.

The PNP social media warriors, like those in the JLP, tend to be broken down by, one, the few who make any sense, and two, those who need to have red flags stapled to their mental health.

Of course it would be fruitless at this stage for Cuthbert-Flynn to register, name and claim rights from those using her ‘lyrics’. When a medical researcher is patenting a medicine or a cure, what is patented is the molecule. Basically. What would Mrs Cuthbert-Flynn register? The heat and intensity of the Jamaican words? About a wet piece of textile hanging on a line to dry? And a few more pieces.

RESTATE WHAT YOU STAND FOR

Whenever an election is in the oven baking and one has to remain in the kitchen to watch the heat gauge, we usually have a few debates to give the candidates the platform to carry us wide. I usually tend not to put too much stock by those verbal laugh fests, unless one really stands out and captures more than the moment.

At this time, I would really want to hear from both political parties. Core values, workable values, must be laid out so that the people will have the time to slosh it around in their brains and not have it delivered as a sound bite fit only for social media when elections are two weeks away.

Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com