How mobile phones revolutionized my life

 How my interests in mobile phones revolutionized my life.

In 1997 when I was born, the computer age was already gaining huge grounds all over the world exponentially.

As I grew, I internalized this growth and was fascinated by technology as a whole. I remember playing with my big brothers as a kid, they had this toy bus that drove itself ; I was amazed at this, I also remember playing this video game on the TV where you could shoot birds with a toy gun in your hands ; super fascinating to me.

I continued my life and started to understand the real world around me, for one I rarely understood the cultural traditions of the day. Till today, as much as I respect everybody..concepts like prostrating to greet people was strange to me..Initially, they were misinterpreted by people to mean disrespect but this wasn't the case.

I'm a 100% modern guy, there is nothing traditional about me.

I understand how the world works but because I'm primarily a yoruba boy, one would think I would be vast in the yoruba culture and knowledge but I'm not. I have no clues. I value my time and choose activities that make me enjoy them.

For instance, pounded yam and bread would give me the same exact satisfaction and nutrients, I'd prefer to buy bread and eat than go through the rigorous process of peeling, boiling and pounding yam. It's just how I think.

In 2011, my uncle gifted me his phone - a Nokia 3110c. That moment changed my life.

Every man who succeeds in life does so with a tool and I identified the mobile phone to be my own.

All the feelings of fascination that greeted my contact with electronic devices were aroused. I played games like PES 2011 on my phone, downloaded songs and opened my Facebook account around this period.

As technology grew worldwide, I became more invested in understanding how technology works.

But there were challenges on the way.

All young people watch movies and see how the developed nations works, how people use their devices to transact business and connect alike.

The interesting scenario is that, african parents - nigerian parents (for specificity sake) who are more in touch with reality believed that phones are a distraction, they also believe that what we watch on TV have no direct impact on our lives and we should instead spend more time with them and learn traditional ways of human interaction that will ground us more in reality. 

Initially, electronic transactions weren't greeted with enthusiasm, the most preferred ways of doing things was analog - you save in a piggy bank, you save in a bank or you patronize the alaajo folks (thrifts) - until more successes made people open to e-commerce. Today, we have applications built by talented developers that can process payments of any kind.

I learnt a lot about the world through my mobile phone and applied everything to my life and it worked.

I am the first Nigerian who has mastered every aspect of his life using my mobile phone and the internet as the tool.

I read on lifestyle, finance, politics, relationships, self-care, professionalism and applied all of it to my life and it worked.

Today, the mobile phone has passed the tests of addiction - for one, addiction is when you need something to kill an emotional pain. The desire for attention online only shows that someone needs care, love, he/she is not getting this in his/her personal life, while the e-world does not provide care, it at least gives glimmers of attention emotional loners hang on to, e-attention just simply says "you're not alone in the world". 

All real life problems can only be solved with real life solutions.

People are not addicted to phones.

People are not addicted to drugs.

People are not addicted to alcohol.

Instead, people are addicted to escaping (their) reality, addicted to escaping inner emotional pains and turmoil, and as long as they haven't found something tangible to deal with these challenges, a means of escape will always be looked out for.

I'm modern, the mobile phone has been a great tool for me and I'm 100% positive on the internet and a progressive way of doing things.

Initially, there were tensions between my modernistic tendencies and the traditional way of doing things but as time went by, the tensions dissolved as the world begun to appreciate my ideas.

I have many friends who are girls but I'm not in any relationship yet because I feel most of the girls I've met don't understand my way of thinking and looking at things, I have no singular traditional thought in my blood, many of my moves are generally tagged disrespectful in the traditional sense but are normal behaviors in the developed world.

I decided to be the first guy to do something new.

I don't have to be in London, New York, Hong Kong or Singapore to be a modern guy, I can be a developed, rational, modern and great guy right here in Nigeria.

The challenges would come and it came - I was literally isolated at some point - but champions are indeed made from challenges.

Peace.