By Imran Darboe
For as long as I can remember, my love for reading has been a frequent remark — sometimes in admiration, but often in criticism. To me, it has always been a source of enlightenment.
Growing up, Sidney Sheldon was my favorite author, brilliant at weaving mesmerising narratives out of reality. But no writer captured my attention quite like Neil Gaiman. His genius in turning abstract philosophical ideas — like human desire, belief, and morality — into tangible, relatable physical characters and objects is simply awesome. In 2001 he produced his novel American Gods (now a TV series on Amazon Prime), and in it Gaiman creates a brilliant metaphor for the modern world and how we live it. While our generation largely sees faith and religious belief in gods as constructed myths, primitive and backward, Gaiman’s story holds a mirror to our eyes. Despite our assumptions of intellectual advancement and civilisation, we haven’t transcended belief in gods; the objects of our faith and devotion have merely shifted.
In American Gods, Gaiman portrays gods from various ancient traditions (Norse, Egyptian, African, Irish, etc.) as human characters. These gods, once revered and widely worshipped, now struggle to survive because modern society has largely forgotten them. Gaiman also introduces characters representing “new gods,” – technology, media, globalisation, and consumerism, which symbolize modern societal obsessions and the forces people “worship” in modern times. The story that unfolds reflects how human priorities and beliefs have shifted over time.
Even though American Gods was written before the age of social media as we know it today, what makes it especially intriguing when I think about it, is the relevance of its metaphor to today’s world, where platforms like TikTok, Twitter (now X), Facebook, and Snapchat have, for all intents and purposes, become the new gods we are faithful to. They command our time, attention, and devotion, shaping how we communicate, build identities, form beliefs, and define our values. Gaiman’s depiction of these forces in our lives resonates even more when I consider them alongside other books I’ve read in the last few years, like iGen, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, The Four, The Narcissism Epidemic, and Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger.
In American Gods, the gods represent what people value most, and today, social media platforms drive our values — mostly instant gratification, constant connection, and the relentless pursuit of validation. TikTok, Twitter/X, and Facebook are no longer just platforms; they shape societal trends, define our reality, and influence who we are. These platforms dominate our interactions, dictate how we consume news and information, and control how we express our opinions.
Like the old gods, who demanded prayers, sacrifices, and devotion, today’s gods of social media demand and thrive on our attention and engagement. The more time we spend on these platforms, the stronger (richer) they become. TikTok, in particular, exemplifies this phenomenon. Its algorithm is designed to keep users hooked, feeding them an endless stream of personalized content and trapping them in a loop of short, snappy videos. Trends rise and fall in a matter of hours or less, creating a constant pressure to keep up with the latest dance craze, meme, or challenge. This cycle fosters an environment where relevance is temporary, and the need to stay on top of trends is endless.
Shoshana Zuboff, in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, explains how companies like Facebook and Google have found a way to monetize human attention. These platforms, once seen as tools for communication, have become complex systems that track and manipulate our behavior to profit from every single bit of information we share online. Our attention has become the product being sold. Like Gaiman’s new gods, who grow stronger with more worship, social media platforms grow more powerful the more time we spend on them, collecting our data and accumulating wealth and influence.
Zuboff’s analysis reveals how these platforms secretly guide our behavior, nudging us toward certain content, products, and interactions to keep us engaged. For example, TikTok’s personalized “For You” page learns from every video we watch, every scroll, every like, creating a feedback loop designed to keep us hooked. These modern gods (platforms) are omnipresent and all-seeing, quietly shaping our decisions without our awareness — much like the ancient gods who were believed to shape human destinies in unseen ways.
In another interesting book – The Four – Scott Galloway discusses how Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google have become some of the most powerful entities in the world, controlling major portions of the economy and shaping everything from political discourse to cultural trends. He notes that Facebook, for example, has become the god of connection and memory, intertwining the virtual world with our daily lives. We use it to stay in touch with family and friends, but it is also a digital archive of our lives, (photos, stories, memories, and everything else).
Twitter/X, on the other hand, has become a platform for amplifying voices, shaping political discourse, and driving social movements. But as with Gaiman modern gods, these gods of social media also have darker sides. Twitter thrives on outrage, conflict, and sensationalism, with algorithms that prioritise content that provokes strong emotional responses. This often leads to polarised opinions and the creation of echo chambers. Platforms like Snapchat and TikTok, focused on temporary validation, encourage users to keep up with an endless flow of updates from friends and trends, echoing the relentless devotion seen in traditional religious practices.
Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell, in The Narcissism Epidemic, discuss the consequence of this, in how society has become more self-obsessed, driven by individualism, consumerism, and the need for self-branding. Social media has turned self-promotion into a necessity. Users are constantly crafting online personas to maximize likes, followers, and engagement in the hope of gaining fame or approval. Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger similarly explores how social media creates a divide between our authentic self and our “performative” self — a version of ourselves shaped by how we are perceived and expected to behave, by others online. Klein states that platforms like TikTok and Facebook encourage the creation of unrealistic versions of ourselves, driven by algorithms that reward certain behaviors, appearances, and content. This digital version becomes a doppelganger, a reflection of ourselves that is both part of us and yet different, created for admiration in the digital space. In this way, we increasingly live through these digital personalities, losing touch with our true selves and what we genuinely believe and value.
The pursuit of instant gratification on social media also results in insecurity and disconnection. As Twenge outlines in iGen, the narcissism fostered by these platforms leads to anxiety, depression, and loneliness, particularly among younger generations. She found that Generation Z — those born between 1995 and 2012, who grew up with smartphones and social media — have been uniquely shaped by these technologies. Social media platforms have created a space where constant comparison and the need for validation through likes and comments mirrors the relationship between worshippers and gods, but instead of gods, it’s the platforms themselves that demand loyalty and influence behavior.
As I observe the trends of young Africans and Gambian, I have come increasingly realised that the devotion to the modern gods of technology and social media has serious implications for many of the youth. Social media primarily spreads Western-centric content and ideologies, marginalizing traditional African knowledge systems, languages, and values. As a result, many young Africans and Gambians seem to view our cultures as outdated or inferior, and seem to be more aligned with globalized, often Westernized, modes of thought and behavior (not always a bad thing of course). The modern gods of social media also operate on principles of surveillance capitalism which means that Gambian youths’ personal data and online behavior (like other African youth) are commodified by corporations, often in the Global North, while the platforms give little back in terms of investment in our economies or digital sovereignty. Thus our youth have become faithful worshippers hoping for salvation from gods that feed on their information ant attention but remain distant and unaccountable.
Furthermore, social media promotes consumerism and materialism at the expense of critical thinking. In the Gambia (and Africa more broadly), where economic disparity with what the youth see online is so stark, this leads to unrealistic aspirations which fuel trends such as illegal migration in search of success abroad. The platforms do offer opportunities for creative expression and entrepreneurship, but users are more often encouraged to follow trends that feed shallow aspirations. In this context our youth risk becoming little more than clowns that make the rest of the world laugh, producing viral content while their countries suffer from a lack of the skills and knowledge needed for sustainable development. This is disastrous for a continent that has the largest youth population in the world.
As algorithms prioritize sensational content, the platforms also become tools for political manipulation. For Africa, where political instability and conflict are common, social media increasingly amplifies disinformation and propaganda, polarizing opinions and inciting divisions. The youth, who are the most active social media users, are particularly vulnerable to these tactics. As they continue to devote themselves to social media, the long-term consequences — particularly for mental health, cultural identity, and political engagement — are worrying.
In a continent, where mental health infrastructures are woefully underdeveloped, and African youths are already grappling with social and economic pressures, this obsession creates an additional layer of anxiety and depression as they struggle to keep up with the unrealistic standards set by influencers and global trends. If African youth and Gambian youth in particular, continue to devote themselves to these new gods without critical thinking, the long-term consequences will be disastrous. Our youth must reclaim cultural pride and pursue what is now being called “digital sovereignty.” Our governments, educators, and civil society must prioritize initiatives that encourage youth to engage with technology in ways that foster autonomy, innovation, and critical thought.
