I could not bewield the desire. Somehow there was something holding me back each time I tried to get off that world and attend to things in the real world. Procrastination became my middle name.
I found the activities in there so fun that it turned war each time I had to let go for a second. I try to, but then I wonder what would be going on in my absence.
The more I had a crucial task to attend to, the more I felt the objects in that world fiercely pulling me back, getting me more engrossed to it and disinclined to the outter world.
I was incessantly so immersed in the virtual world—the activities, the graphics, the people, and the apps themselves were so absorbing that I couldn't survive without looking into my gadget every now and then. Even when I tried to do something else, I got bored easily and ended up returning to my phone.
¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•° ¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•° ¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶
It was Friday evening. My Mom had told me to prepare beans and plantain for the whole family before she arrived home.
I was on my phone all day; chatting and watching videos. As soon as it was time for me to cook, I still couldn't let go and so I used my phone in the kitchen while washing the soiled beans.
Afterwards, I placed the beans on fire and returned to my room to give my device all the attention; viewing statuses with joy. Glad for me, beans is known to take ages to cook well so I had all the time to myself.
I locked myself in and watched videos on TikTok, moving from one platform to the other.
It was the most entertaining thing ever. (●'◡'●)
Afterwards, I went on to chat with none other than sweet, sweet Oliver.
We talked about our lives, we talked about our thoughts towards each other and looked forward to meeting each other.
We did a video call for a really long time, where Oliver got to tell me a lot about himself and how much my company meant to him.
Later on, we dropped the call and resumed texting.
"I really enjoyed that call. Can we do this more frequently?"
"Yeah. Why not?"
"Damn, I wish we could meet. I just wanna see your face but outside of this prison walls of my phone's screen."
"Awww. I really wish that happens soon. I can't believe we actually attended the same school and saw each other every single day but didn't know what we were missing out on by not talking to each other."
"I was the admire-from-afar guy. I couldn't dare approach you especially with Remi as your bodyguard. Dude doesn't leave your side for a f**king second!"
"Lol, we're twins."
"Now, you owe me some explanations on why I had to delete all of our chats that day."
"Trust me, u do not wanna know."
"Girl, just spill the beans."
I gasped and said to myself, "the beans!"
I jumped out of bed with my phone still in my hand. As soon as I opened the door, smoke flew into my room and behedged my view. I coughed and waved my hands through the fog.
I found my way into the kitchen. The beans had vanished and was replaced by debris and ashes.
I coughed badly and turned the gas off. I was panic-stricken. I knew I had to fix things before my parents would arrive back.
For once, I dropped the devilish thing. I opened the windows and grabbed a bottle of fragrance.
Just immediately, I heard a knock on the door. "Oh no. No, no, no."
I ran to the door and peeped through the door hole. It was just Remi. 𝐘𝐞𝐞𝐬𝐡!
I swiftly opened up and immediately, he coughed in an hyperbolized manner. I rolled my eyes.
"What did you do?! I've been coughing before I even reached this area!"
"You really need to help me."
"Oh my God... Did you burn the food to ashes?"
"I don't know how this happened."
"Your parents will so kill you today."
"Yes. I didn't know that until you just told me," I said sarcastically. "I need to fix this before my parents arrive. What should I do?"
"How did it even happen?"
"That's not necessary for now. Just help me!"
"You need to tell me how this happened first, because this cannot just suddenly happen. You let it happen." I ignored the question and he said again, "Temi, where you on your phone?"
"Okay don't be my conscience right now. And don't act like something like this hasn't happened to you before because you were on your phone."
He sighed. "It wasn't as serious as this. Now, find a way to start cooking the food all over again and I'll work on the cleaning."
Without warning, I heard the sound of my Mom's car roll in.
"𝑊𝑎𝒉𝑎𝑙𝑎," Remi said somewhat in ridicule.
My heart made a run for it. It was only a matter of seconds before judgement would prevail over me. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐞?
She opened the door and walked in with a shocked expression on her face.
"Who set my house on fire?!" My Mom ran to the kitchen to survey it. I couldn't tell exactly what she felt; she had this furious and perplexed look. "A neighbour called to ask me what's happening, that it seems like something is set on fire in my house. I doubted it. Temi, what is wrong with you?!" 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬!
She was really vexed but she couldn't lay a finger on me like the average Nigerian Mom. She left that for my Dad to handle.
But she desired to know one thing.
"How did this happen?"
I was mute. (•_•)
"Answer me!"
I took advantage of her inability to scold me; I refused to answer.
I was in trouble alright but I didn't want double trouble. Confessing that my phone caused me to be absent-minded while cooking was sure to create a double trouble.
"Remi, what happened around here?"
𝐎𝐡 𝐧𝐨. 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐳𝐳-𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥!
"Ma?" Remi pretended not to hear her clearly.
"You heard me the first time!"
Remi turned to me and I gave him the sign, "do not rat me out."
"Uh..." He adjusted his glasses as he often did when he was nervous.
"Remi!"
𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐭, 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐭. I kept giving him signs.
"Ugh! I'm sorry, Temi. Ma, she was so engrossed in her phone that she forgot she was cooking."
"You snitch!"
"Be quiet! You nearly burnt my house down! Are you okay at all? I'll just wait for your father's arrival. He knows how to handle this." 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐦. (꒪⌓꒪)
My Dad arrived home and I stood before judgement. He glared at me for few moments. "Go and get me that phone," the lion said and I, the chicken obeyed.
He took the phone from me and said, "you can go."
"Just like that? Doesn't she deserve more punishment for the stupid thing she did?"
"This is enough punishment. Enough to break her."
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I was breaking inside! I couldn't survive this form of torment! (＞﹏＜)
I layed on my bed, playing a yo-yo. I had never been so bored out of my brain in my whole life. I felt so incomplete. I couldn't find something else to do that revolved around the outside world.
I missed my online friends, I missed our exciting chats. I missed playing mobile games, I missed watching TikTok and Instagram videos, I missed the late night calls, I missed... Everything.
I tuned out the badgering knock on my door and focused on my yo-yo.
Suddenly, Remi walked in.
"I didn't say you could come in!"
"Come on, you can't possibly ignore me forever."
"Get out."
"But I said I'm sorry 𝑛𝑎. I actually came to talk to you."
With immediate effect, I sat right and threw a glare at him. "Leave!"
He sighed and left.
Few minutes later, he returned with a cup of yoghurt.
"Your Mom makes really good yoghurt."
"I thought I asked you to leave."
"Tell me exactly why you're vexing. Did you really expect me to lie? What you did was wrong and it's not so bad that your parents took away your phone for a while. You need a break."
"Just get out, Remi. Leave!"
"Okay, let's make a deal: I'll leave just after I tell you what I came here to tell you."
"You've got two minutes."
"Okay," he grabbed a chair and sat before me. "So..."
"One, two. Time's up—out!"
He chuckled cutely and spoke anyway, "you need to fix this addiction in order that you don't get into more trouble and so you can give your parents reasons why they need to return your phone back to you. So I made some discoveries."
"I'm not addicted!"
"Yes you are!"
"No I'm not!"
"You are!"
"Not!"
"Ugh, this is hopeless. How do you help a person who doesn't even feel she has a problem?"
I gave him 𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠.
•>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>•
𝐉𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐑
•<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<•
𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐠𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬.
𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥.
He continued, " Anyways your obstinacy won't stop me from speaking. So, did you know that the average millennial checks their phone 157 times daily?"
"Wow, so fascinating," I said sarcastically, rolled my eyes and layed on my back, staring at the ceiling, hoping he would just shut up.
"We're trying to feel connected, validated and liked. Social Media is designed to sustain users' attention with a mix of good UI design and psychology, creating an addictive mix for users."
"Great!" Boredly, I cheered him on.
"Apps are constantly fighting for our attention by tweaking their features to keep users on their phones for as long as possible.There are deliberate designs, tools, and features to keep you, Temi, hooked."
"Three more minutes."
"Look, I don't even care if you refuse to listen to me. I'm saying all of this just in case my words are recorded in a book for people to read, 'cause everyone needs to be aware of this. Now, I'll mention five key techniques to you.
ꕥ
"One—the slot machine. The slot machine effect is a well documented technique which has been mirrored across almost all social media sites. The pull-to-refresh and scrolling mechanism on our news feeds is similar to a slot-machine.
The slight delay of response before your newsfeed is populated again is all a part of building the anticipation to release a dopamine hit of excitement when you get your latest posts.
The psychology behind all this is described as intermittent variable rewards. The online feedback loop needs to be unpredictable, you're never sure what you're going to get. It is the exact same feeling you get when pulling the lever in a slot machine to see if you've won.
ꕥ
"Two—there is the "like" consciousness.
Gosh! This is one of the most reasons why we're drawn to our phones. We want to always stay updated and find out how many likes we've gotten on a certain post. It keeps us coming back.
ꕥ
"There's also gamifying social interaction.
Social media apps such as Snapchat employ gamification to engage users and keep them coming back. For example "streaks" is the one causing the most concern, and uses elongating red lines to display the number of days since two users interacted. According to Adam Alter, this design feature is so effective that he's heard of teens asking friends to babysit their streaks while on holiday. How crazy!
ꕥ
"Number four—Push Notifications— probably the most deadly feature of them all. Push notifications which are designed to constantly distract and interrupt our days. Constantly notifying us and trying to pull us back to the app.
Every time we receive a notification, our brain produces dopamine, the chemical associated with reward and motivation. FOMO is a big part that push notifications prey on. Telling you, you have a fourteen unread messages but you don't know who is messaging you or what they are saying.
ꕥ
"Then lastly, the "typing" awareness. Those wavy dots. This, I call "the technique for anticipation." You know, once those wavy dots becomes visible in your chats, you get more intrigued as to what the person might intend to say next in response to your text. It's therefore a technique to keep you hooked."
"Oh! Like how I get hooked when I see that Ollie is typing."
"Okay."
"I get so thrilled and indeed, it becomes impossible..."
"I said okay!"
"Gee, sorry."
"Point is, you need to understand that there's a beautiful world just outside your phone's screen."
𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐝𝐮𝐝𝐞. (-_-)
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⚘𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙇𝙀𝙓𝙄𝘾𝙊𝙂𝙍𝘼𝙋𝙃𝙔⚘
*𝐁𝐔𝐙𝐙-𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋*
ΩSomeone who breaks down easily at a slight threat.
ΩSomeone who can't keep secrets.
∆Oh no. Not the 𝑏𝑢𝑧𝑧-𝑘𝑖𝑙𝑙.
*𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒*
ΩEyes that express anger.
ΩA look of anger or disrespect.
∆I gave him 𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠.
*𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐂*
ΩThe quality of revealing too much to people, as of a parrot.
∆Darn 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑐 neighbours!
::♥• 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐀 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐉𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐒𝐎𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐀 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀 𝐇𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐓𝐀𝐆 "𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐌𝐂"
»» #𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐌𝐂
::♥•𝐅@𝐓𝐞𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐞