The Impact of Ban of Twitter on the Psychomedical and Socioeconomic Life of Young Health Professionals and Trainees in Nigeria

Abstract

On Friday the 4th of June 2021 the Nigeria minister of information Hon. Lai Mohammed announced an indefinite ban of the micro-blogging app “Twitter” from the Nigerian internet space [1]. This directive was almost immediately carried out within 24 hours by mobile phone companies in the country [2]. Although the government has its reservations and reasons for such action, it has a lot of potentially harmful prognosis on the lives of the average Nigerian. This paper aims to communicate some of these short comings’ health workers will face. Firstly, twitter has served as a coping mechanism for healthcare workers. As the Nigerian healthcare worker is almost always over worked and burnt-out, having a medium to intermittently clear the mind is almost the only consolation some get. This is not synonymous to social media addiction, as it rather has a positive correlation with work burnout, but an intermittent stress relieves medium [3]. Twitter has been that medium. As health workers often come online during their leisure time to jokingly lament about their stressful days and get consolations and cheers from fellow (often distant) colleagues on the app. Who in turn share their own tale? Thus, creating a seemingly round table conversation with stressed peers.