I never started PoiseSocial with the intention of amassing a huge following and turning it into a promotion platform as is the model for most media platforms on facebook. I do think about how I can make some money from the work I do, but that is the last thing I actually think about.
Just three months in, I have been nominated for an award, other media platforms have profiled me, and people have had much to say about me online. No matter how much I tried to make it otherwise, it started to be about me, not PoiseSocial and for a brief moment, the attention began to test and eat into my principles. I caught myself a few times trying to post for the sake of having something fresh and not because the information was particularly relevant to my defined editorial direction.
For the most part, I have caught myself before having to follow through with something not so Poise. I have a bunch of articles written but never posted because I am still going through them to make sure they are worth your time.
A few days ago, for the first time, I did something without putting in much thought like I would normally do. I got subconsciously caught up in the numbers game. My mind went into ‘break the story’ mode and I broke my values alongside.
Most of you will remember I wrote a review for ‘A Man For The Weekend’ one day before the Yaounde Premiere. Being the bad liar I am, I actually disclosed in the post that I had a copy of the movie (I’m clearly not cut out for tabloid work.) How I got it doesn’t matter but the fact is, I was not supposed to have the movie. I planned to attend the premiere but I couldn’t make it. Given I had planned to write a review following the premiere, when I saw an opportunity to get the movie, I didn’t do much thinking; I went for it - probably just excited that I finally get to watch a Cameroonian movie and of course get my content by any means necessary.
My article, I don’t believe caused any significant damage to the movie producers but I can think of situations in which a slip of this nature could have had much more serious implications and I wouldn’t want that to happen to me so I understand if they got furious that I was able to lay my hands on their property in the manner in which I did.
I am the same guy who insisted I get a ticket directly from the ticket booklet at the last comedy show I attended in Buea. Some guy had a ticket but apparently was not going to use it anymore and was trying to pass it. I wanted the producers of the show to keep his money and my money so I refused to take his ticket knowing the ticket booklets are numbered and he can’t get a refund if everyone cared as much as I do to buy theirs officially. That is to say, ethics - I won’t deliberately tamper with. In the case of ‘A Man For The Weekend,’ it was really a slip of my guard in what was really some grey area and I didn't really think of the implications of my action.
In all, a great learning experience for me - being someone who is new in this field. You spend so much time in Cameroon and things like ethics start to evaporate from your mind - not to make excuses but it is just the fact.
With my apologies in order, let’s be reminded in the words of Ryan Holiday as he writes :- As most of us become successful, “the tendency is to switch to the mindset of ‘getting what is mine.’ Now all of a sudden, awards and recognition matter—even though they weren’t what got us here. We need that money, that title, that media attention — not for the team or the cause but for ourselves. Because we have earned it.
Let’s make one thing clear: we never earn the right to be greedy or to pursue our interests at the expense of everyone else. “ To think otherwise is counter productive and that is definitely not something we need in this country at this time.
I am fighting this tendency daily because I see it around here too often and many have been caught in it. I will not name names but look around and you won’t be short of examples of people who come to the public for help and forget the public once they have been propelled to the top. People that campaign with ‘for the people’ and switch to ‘Me. Me. Me’ after they win.
Any-Ha!
As for PoiseSocial, the goal remains ‘to create a platform for us to have those hard conversations that are important for the posterity of our culture.’
I spend a lot of time thinking about our society and ways in which we (as a generation) can move it forward in an honest and sustainable manner. I take to Poise to share those ideas in the hopes that they can spread, inspire others, and be fine-tuned in the process. Everything else as concerns PoiseSocial comes secondary.
The content on Poise is not viral material so I naturally do not expect it to be as popular as some gossip platforms can get. Because of its habitual lengthy nature, I try to make the writing entertaining and at the same time memorable something I achieve by employing a lot of satire and sarcasm.
For lack of a better analogy, let’s consider PoiseSocial to be our local, small version of the Whitehouse correspondence dinner where we make real jokes about everybody (including the president) and laugh them out knowing the objective is for us to promote a free and uninhibited press that works for the good of everyone. A place where we can check ourselves in a straightforward but civilized manner. For me, it is never personal and it will never be personal.
That said, nothing else changes. I’ll still give it to you as straight as I get it and hope to make fewer mistakes along the way. I don’t do it for awards or for applause and I continue to pray those never become priority. I do it for the culture and I need us to hold each other to that standard.
I will be reposting my review after the movie goes on sale. Should the movie disappear like the others, I will have something to say about that too.
- Tino Foy