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SOCIAL DISCONNECT By: Olusegun Akinsanya


In our traditional society, there was communal existence. It seemed as if everyone wanted the good of his neighbour in a way. There was something like being one's brother's keeper. When a child misbehaved, the elders around deemed it fit to correct him.

When a child was hungry, they were often invited into the homes of neighbours to come and share their meal. There was a kind of bond that made people not to watch their backs. Agricultural produce were always left along the footpaths, houses were left unguarded, children were left to roam around the street, and play with their colleagues, etc. But the cord seemed to have broken in this our generation.

I watched a clip on the social media sometimes ago. Two ladies were fighting real big in the public, I think it was a dispute over a male. They tore each other's clothes, while their friends stood by to enjoy the saga and one of them was filming the show of shame.

They did not attempt to separate them, rather they felt the joy of recording them and putting the unedited clip for thousands of people to see. That is not the world we grew up to know.

The world we grew up to know was a world where passers by normally played the role of peacemakers. Sometimes, they would beat the two contenders in a bid to separate them. Our society is becoming increasingly highly individualistic. The cord that binds people in an invisible and invincible bond of brotherhood is becoming slack. Everyone is now for himself, promoting his own interest and protecting his own space. In those day, there used to be time of prayer called intercession.

We would pray for people all over the world, the hurting, the depraved, the ravaged and the hopeless. But go round the praying centres, all the prayer time is spent on my needs, my family, my business, and my wellbeing.

 The little time we spend to pray for others is against them. We just ask God to destroy them, those enemies of progress, those household enemies, and so on. We are only becoming more individualistic and protective of our individual space while the world that is acclaimed to be a small global village due to technology is now made up of individuals that are alarmingly farther apart to a degree the world had never known.

EXRADALLENUM OLUSEGUN AKINSANYA

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