#ConversationsMatter People will not die for things they don’t understand or believe. If we want change then we must be able to evoke a strong sense of belief and loyalty. As a Nigerian Writer on social media, I see the potential we have with blogs and ebooks. We need youths to believe again and we want the older generation to connect with the youths.

Very few people are ready for this change in mental culture. We have a different social habit but it’s time to learn new habits.

Facebook and blogs have opened the door to free publishing and expression. Anyone can hold opinions you don’t like and there is absolutely nothing you could do about it. Except you want to be a criminal. You can’t beat them up, or emotionally blackmail them to silence, nothing!

Every day people write and they cause their friends and family some concern, it’s inevitable. I cause my family some headache. This is at the price of creating thoughts. My greatest desire is that we win the battle for people’s minds. I want more young people to question things, to be inquisitive.

We need more youths that disrupt the status quo. Let them stumble. Let them make mistakes. It’s part of the process. Is it not better than making mistakes with drug addiction, disease, death, and corruption? Silence has made it difficult for youths to be innovative and productive, we have mere scratches of information about our history.

Facebook and WordPress are built for conversation. Like every other platform on the internet, we are engineering the minds of people towards a better humanity.

You as leaders or parents owe your youths; African youths, an explanation. Not shutting us up. Youths owe each other mutual respect, don’t piss on other people’s  thoughts and expect a salute.

I think it’s high time we all learned how social media could be profitable for us. We need to come to a meeting point so we can solve the Nigerian and African problem of silence, intellectual dearth, and suffering. We can solve problems and unite our ideas but a change in social habit is necessary.

7 Social Habits Self Published Authors Need You to learn:

1. Respect: Respect yourself and don’t assume that everyone knows your age or the number of children you have.
2. Be Altruistic: Not every post is about you. People don’t just wake up thinking about a Facebook friend or elders to attack. You are not that important. The writer has bigger problems than the misplaced comma you are fidgeting about.
3. Don’t be so touchy: Even if you offended someone and they write about that offense, they have not offended you by sharing their pains with people. They don’t owe you an obligation to hide their situation from the world.
4. Accept others: It’s not always about you. People just want to share their stories. Humans are born with a capacity to tell stories, study history and improve performance based on that. We are only doing what humans should do, humans communicate.

5. Write Yours: Elders, tell us how you contributed to this failure. Publish a book, tell your story and meet us Midway. We are willing to learn but it will be our way, not yours. Your methods have not worked so far.

6. Write Yours: Youths, don’t wait till you are almost dead before holding an opinion and publishing it.

7. Take a chill pill: Stop being so negative. We all need each other but negativity will get you pushed away faster. Your opinions matter to people on social media but only till they become consistently negative and then people have to move away for their own health’s sake.

We all need positive influences.

Most of my close relationships are with older people and not my age group but I also need my space. Don’t think because I take advice or listen to you, then I won’t disagree tomorrow. Learn to take disagreement, that’s what the internet has created. A neutral ground for disagreement. This also applies to young guys like me, every human; male, female, adult child, has a right to their opinion.

Many of us have been unable to hold opinions or think our own thoughts at a safe distance. Many were battered and blackmailed throughout their childhood. No one deserves to continue that lifestyle online.

One day our independence will be true, we would have learned to say “No” without fear. This would strengthen us and help us determine who rules us, we would also be strong enough to hold people accountable without fear. If we want to make a Nation that youths can believe in, then let’s start with respectful and decent conversations.

Learn to speak without choking people. Put your opinions forward but don’t expect them to be immediately swallowed. Accept that you could be wrong. Don’t be offended by disagreement and learn how to apologize. You will see a youth that would be willing to die for that, no one would throw all of that away just to slave away in another man’s land.

How would you like a Christmas gift from me? With little help you could start your journey towards writing better, sharing your inspiring stories and connecting with people through blogging and social media content. GET YOURS