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Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, has said the Ghanaian’s romanticism with social media is beginning to affect the level of productivity in the country.

He said the amount of attention given by the youth to social media platforms be it Facebook, WhatsApp or Twitter among others; for non productive efforts leaves much to be desired.

“The abuses, the insults, the vilifications and the untruths cannot characterize the generation of the social media”, he said.

Mr Haruna Iddrisu said this while delivering a public lecture at the Wa campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) over the weekend.

The Development Communication Students Association (DEVCOSA) of the Department of African and General Studies (DAGS) under the Faculty of Integrated Development Studies (FIDS), Organised the lecture, which was on the theme: “Communication and Development in Contemporary Ghana”.

Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale South, noted that the essence of social media was to ensure information sharing to enhance social relationships and not for purposes of vilifying and abusing individuals or groups.

The Employment and Labour Relations Minister bemoaned the possessiveness of Ghanaians to social media messages and called on the nation to have a rethink on its issue.

“At our work places many are those who spend productive hours exchanging social media messages to the neglect of productive working activities”, he said.

Mr Haruna Iddrisu said with the recent Kintampo accident for instance, unacceptable pictures started flowing on social media within a matter of seconds without courtesy to human life, human dignity, the dead and the bereaved families.

 “This is not known to Ghanaian culture neither is it known to Ghanaian values but the potency of communication and its misuse”, he said.

He advised the students against such misuse of communication and its tools and rather focused on using communication properly to facilitate social development.

The MP further advised young people to refrain from commenting on doubtful matters and urged them to “to pray for their tongues every day” because the slip of the tongue could bring about war, divorce and lack of social harmony at home as well as acrimony, conflict and chaos.