Internet, you and the world. Why a Security guard turning president in Gambia should be normal in today’s world

I suggested that the world should open the eyes and see this coming before it gets us by surprise. I said that it’s now possible to have a country elect a president they have never seen or heard speak. That a teenager living in their parents’ basement could shut down the world and take over nuclear codes control.

It has basically narrowed down to likes, shares and re-tweets. Nobody cares anymore about who’s on the other end as long as they can relate to their message.

Brexit: people voted blindly. Regretted and suggested reversal the day after.

Trump: A movement went gaga and voted silently catching the world and Trump himself by surprise.

Boniface Mwangi: The next person that people will ask “how did he get there?”.

I’m talking about internet power. People voting today are Generation Y and Generation Z. These two generations have revolutionized the world. Y made social media while Z was born knowing no other way of life than what Y built.

(case in point) If Larry Madowo and Caroline Mutoko formed a coalition and vied for a presidential office today they’d garner more votes than Uhuru, Ruto and Raila combined. It is no longer about party affiliations, wealth, power or ones background. It has evolved to who speaks your mental language. The reason Facebook introduced ”reactions” is because it is through internet that majority of the world’s population are expressing their feelings. Facebook is even sending you a daily count and analytics of how many reactions you got the previous day so that you keep improving in making popular feeds.

It is possible to send a ‘text’ today without typing a single letter and still create total understanding in the mind of the other. That is the secret. The secret that businesses are using in making viral videos that lands on your timeline just because they’re popular. Yes, Facebook made ”popular stories” your default setting for a reason.

This is why you hear trump saying the day after election “I got 100K followers last night” and not what a typical baby boomer would say after being elected to the world’s top office. This is why Kiambu governor found it of higher priority to feed the residents with free WiFi on community hotspots  than street lights or fire hydrants.

Anybody who uses internet technology the right way today will get whatever and wherever they want to be at no cost. The wins will be too big for governments to rig elections and balance the tally, too much for consumers to ignore the trend. The sad part is that both smart and mediocre people are online, some are smart the wrong way, and we have no control over that. We can only go with the flow and adapt to change.