The National Tabligh (preaching) Secretary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission, Ghana, Alhaj Nasir Ahmed Bonsu, says research shows that people spend over seven hours on screen time, depriving themselves of sleep. Research, he said, also shows that about 70% of screen time is wasted on social media.
He stressed that people nowadays spend so much time on social media to the effect that they are either half-awake whilst praying or miss salat altogether due to sleep, adding that inappropriate use of social media affects the standard of worship and acceptance of prayers.
At the 93rd Annual Jalsa Salana, currently underway at Baghe-Ahmed in Pomadze near Winneba, Alhaj Nasir Ahmed Bonsu highlighted that one of the leading causes of death in contemporary times is suicide. According to him, current research conducted by the Center for Disease Control in the United States shows that social media and the heightened risk of suicidal thoughts are closely correlated.
Another negative effect of social media he highlighted is cyberbully where social media enthusiasts send abusive comments on content creators’ posts, which trigger negative reactions from content creators. This makes victims of such abuse lose temper, self-esteem, and feel neglected.
He further explained that the emergence of Artificial Intelligence has enhanced identity theft, which is the use of an unauthorized image of someone to create a graphic motion to mimic the facial recognition and voice pitch in the exact form, which is mostly hard to detect.
He further stressed that Ahmadi children who are not yet enrolled in the tertiary education sector must not use mobile phones themselves, as it creates an avenue to abuse their use. He said “excessive use of social media leads to a negative impact on mental and physical health, where people spend so much time forgoing hunger and salat”.
Alhaj Nasir Ahmed Bonsu advised members to desist from using tabligh as a shield to do something else with the opposite sex. He said Huzur (atba) has on several occasions asked that women do tabligh to women and vice versa. He cautioned that the current age is the jihad of reformation rather than that of the sword.
He advised that the way towards pious living is that of following the true teachings of Islam. He said it is imperative that we do not underestimate the power of social media, whose medium is the smartphone, which has outdated several technologies used previously.
By: Sabaha Abonyin
