A generation loud in the wrong places

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6mins read . Social Commentary . February 8, 2026

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Hello my fellow angry birds, 

A PUBLIC SERVICE OPINION!!! LOL 

These days, everyone is angry. You post something, or share a contrary opinion or view. It’s taken the wrong way. You refuse to follow the trend. It’s taken the wrong way. You waddle in society-infused confusion, because standing your ground or having an opinion has become an expensive gamble that can cost you your whole life. 

All special thanks to the big and powerful “cancel culture.”

Opinions these days are not even opinions. You just nod in agreement at whatever is said, wearing a fake smile and calling it solidarity. 

“An hungry man is an angry man.” A wise proverb or saying, lol, I don’t know. 

But are we hungry? Let’s ask if the problem is actual hunger. What are we hungry for in this generation? Why are we all so angry?

The anger online is a different type of rage. It’s the kind that always leaves me in the middle space with social media, agreeing that the advantages are as wild as the disadvantages. But there’s a strange sting that comes with the disadvantages, one that really irks us. What an angry generation I find myself in.

What a truly angry generation. Zero room for mercy or to create a bit of understanding. Not allowed to make a mistake, yet the first to preach forgiveness. Not allowed to be expressive, yet the first to preach self-expression. Only to be sabotaged by the angry heads. And by “angry heads,” I mean all of us “humans”.

“Your opinion matters,” they say. But you’d better watch your mouth before your opinion lands you in a big mess. I find it really strange that comprehension has become such a big problem. Is it truly a comprehension issue? Or a lack of patience ? Or something else entirely? 

We all just shuffle. We pick and choose. Drop, drag, whatever. People aren’t allowed to have certain opinions, yet some opinions are allowed to exist without ever being questioned. Even the double standard preachers are not left out. 

We are the pioneers of the cancel culture movement. No room for forgiveness at all. You might as well stop existing and relocate to Mars, or wherever, if you’re caught saying something not deemed agreeable. 

The order of the day is: How can we spite you? How can we make sure you know you shouldn’t have said that? How can we make sure you don’t have a contrary opinion? 

Fine. Let’s attack you. Your livelihood. Let’s dig up your past self, the one you thought you’d left buried and hunt you with it.

I totally understand that some crash-outs are valid, but what happened to forgiveness and togetherness? Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and having an opinion about something doesn’t automatically mean you agree with it, or disagree with it. 

Sometimes, to me, it simply means you acknowledge something, even if it’s not necessarily your thing. 

I remember Nicki Minaj saying that it’s okay that boys should be boys, and the LGBTQ community took offense to it. 

Similarly, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has also said things that I personally didn’t find disrespectful to the LGBTQ community, yet she too was cancelled. 

I feel we are often too angry to even pause and listen before passing fair judgment. And if what I’m describing doesn’t quite suit the word angry, then I’d call it misplaced priority. 

We take anger meant for one cause and unload it onto another, something completely different. Reaction without reflection. 

How dare you not support what a once-outcast group in society, now finally with a voice agrees with? How dare you? How dare you not want change? A change that promises liberation for some people. How dare you? 

That’s the order of the day now. Misplaced anger.   

Especially as a Nigerian youth, there are so many things to be angry about. So many things to express concern over. Things that should not be taken lightly. But no, we pour our anger into different causes, ones that won’t actually help us.

Imagine getting angry at a celebrity for posting this or that. Angry at women for dressing however it suits them. 

Yet we suddenly become accepting of policies and rules that, in the long run, will affect us all. Policies that will continue to shape our stories.

I often wonder what the world would look like if we all channeled the right anger into the right places making systems work for us instead of pouring our energy into misplaced rage, the way we do today. 

I get it. Everything feels tense. Everyone is scared, angry, confused about one thing or another. I really do get it. But we need to internalise our emotions. Whatever we feel is valid. 

Still, blindly placing anger on the wrong causes will continue to cost us far more than we’re willing to admit.

The anger, the fear, the confusion, all of it is also fuelled by misplaced anger. Someone gets caught up in a mess: a cheating scandal, or whatever drama is circulating online. Stories like that trend for days, sometimes even months. 

We have people digging. Zooming into pictures. Chasing “facts.” Until your algorithm is completely filled with people’s gist as we’d call it in Nigerian slang.

Emotions run high and suddenly everyone is angry at whoever is in the wrong or whatever the scenario may be. 

But let it be something that could actually elevate our quality of life, or regulations that may do us no good, and suddenly it’s: “Let’s talk about it a little.” And then we don’t really talk about it anymore until it dies out. 

I find myself questioning it all. Where was the anger we had during the cheating scandal, or whatever hot gist was trending just a few days ago?

Why is everyone suddenly silent? Where are the voices that were dropping their two cents? Hashtags popping left and right. People and organisations being cancelled. Where did all that energy go? 

All of a sudden, we’re like little puppies drenched in cold rain, unable to be alive. And let’s not even forget the physical manifestations of it all: road rage, angry stares that seem to ask, “Why are you this happy?” Or people looking so irritated, like I should’ve been the only one awake this morning not you.

So angry heads don’t stop the anger,  keep moving it to the right cause. Let’s identify the right places to pour our anger into to make policies, system, rules and everything good to work for us.