Social media and internet usage viewed as too much exposure

Utilizing the internet comfortably is one of the things that increases usage especially among women in my community. By comfort I mean being able to go to a cyber cafe where internet lines are fast and the environment women friendly. But that happens not to be the case. Connections most of the times are painfully slow at public internet bars and these places are also more often than not crowded mostly by men who sometimes smoke and use foul language that might not be friendly to many women.

I used the public cyber for several years and never felt comfortable. Thus I resorted to getting an internet modem so as to be able to use internet in the comfort of my home. The question is if I get the connectivity I expect. My experience with these modems might not have been the best still because of the slow connection lines sometimes, but I am happy to work from home. The picture here shows a series of modems that can be interchanged when on service provider is not efficient. It is quite expensive still for many women to afford all these. It is therefore a big challenge for women who more often than not have a lot of work to do and would rather do their house chores than waste time trying to access internet on very slow lines.

The last time I visited a cyber about a week ago, I came across one woman who told me she had been at the cyber for more than 30 minutes, yet unable to open her email. I discovered her when I personally could not have access with the use of my laptop and after switching to the cyber desktop, discovered it was a general problem. Big problem because many will spend time but no work done.

Secondly, in a world where anything about everything circulates around the web, it is rather strange and preposterous that some people still regard social media usage as too much unnecessary exposure. This is the impression by many men in my community who restrict the amount of time spent on the internet by their female partners.

If women could be empowered with the necessary tools to needed to weave the web in my community, it will lead to a great impact because their husbands and partners will not be restricting them as much as they do when they have to leave their houses to go to public cyber to weave the web.

Most of these women too need to be taught on how to use the internet purposefully and the various tools they need to utilize. With this, the change in all aspects will be so evident as women are great leaders in my region of origin.