Our relationship started way back as far as 2008. I was preparing to write my final senior secondary school exam, this simply means I will be parting with my long-term friends and colleagues for a longest time to come, even some we may never meet again. A few of my friends in school already get theirs and it is becoming everyone's top priority to follow suit.
In my case, apart from parting with my friends in some months to come, I will be leaving the village for a nearby town to get a job and start processing admission into a higher institution and I will be needing this to always be in touch with my family.
These were my needs when I bought my first mobile phone, a J-mart product for 5,000 in Naira which was equal to just 42$ then. And it served me well. I could make and receive calls, and play the radio with it.
This time my needs were to just call and interact with my friends and family and now over a decade later I have grown into using a more advanced technology device to call, chat(both audio and video), and even make money with the help of the Internet and hive applications, at the comfort of my home. Who would have thought one could make a living with just a mobile phone two decades ago? huh! But here we are and my earning depends largely on my phone.
This relationship has evolved with time more than I could even imagine 15 years ago and the future looks more sophisticated and more complex in how this tool is involved in my everyday activities.
Am I worried or scared of what is capable of doing like rendering me useless without it? I think yes, a little bit as it has made my life very easy and just like every human, we all love the easy way right?. But the easy things tend to make us fragile. Even as it is I will still take my present device era compared to my letter writing eras.
I might miss the time of letter writing because of its simplicity. Yes, the present technology offers me so much more, especially as a woman in Africa with limited opportunities and chances. Today's devices have put me ahead based on what I could achieve ten years back. I just have to know where to draw the line and balance my relationship with other things in my life.
The Hard Part
The hard part is where to draw the line with my device and balance my relationship with it.
As hard as it can be I try to prioritize the time I spend with my loved ones, as much as possible without letting my device or the things I do with it interfere. There are times I feel like my life is In the open and for this I limit personal things I put on the internet as much as possible.
My curious mind still looks up the next big thing the future technology and applications will offer us even as scary as it might be. And this made me not so different from who I'm deep inside two decades ago.
This is my response to this week's unity toward freedom community challenge with some hours to it expiration you can still put in or keep an eye for the next challenge.
The picture in this publication is mine. Thank you very much 🙏🙏 for your time and support till some other time take care of yourself