Diary of DML (Episode 6) - A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

In the years when we didn’t have smartphones to keep us busy, we had to wait till 4pm for the television stations in Nigeria to start broadcasting while we watched helplessly, the pre-transmission color codes until it switched to a noisy rendition of the national anthem. It is no wonder that Thursday is & would continue to be my favourite day of the week. The first interesting programme on Thursday starts from 6:30 and it was StoryLand with Jimi Odumosu on NTA 2 channel 5 (who remembers this show?....oldies ??) then you allow your folks listen to their boring News at 7...8pm then was Checkmate which would run till 9. Another boring News at 9pm, then 10pm was Tour of Duty, 11 was P.S I love you ...Those were the days( for some strange reasons, my parents actually allowed me watch TV till late on Thursdays alone provided I finished my assignment).

During those times, we interacted a lot as social beings, there was value in relationships because of minimal distraction as compared to now when you hang out and everyone is on their phone. Interacting was an important part of our lifestyle. We enjoyed the company of others. Going for parties was basically to meet new people (modern day networking). We liked people genuinely for the content of their personality.

One question clearly stands out and it goes thus, HOW DID WE MANAGE???

That is one question I keep asking myself, especially because I can not imagine life without the internet right now. I can't imagine not waking up in the morning and not stretching out my hand to pick up my mobile device to check out what's going on around the world. It feels as though I had to live through the cave times.

I had to take you all down through memory lane to make you understand that everything has changed. It is no longer business as usual. For those with analogue minds, you can't use one to solve a digital problem. 

The few times (Did I actually say few times??...loool) I am by myself with that criminally cold bottle of Beer ?? with the help and support of Asun or Catfish as the spirit leads, I have always imagined  a scenario where my dad who passed on in 2001 (19 years ago) would somehow through a time portal ( yeah yeah, I watch too many movies) try to engage me in a conversation from heaven to ask me what's happening right now and I tell him that there's a small mobile device that can practically do everything from making phone calls, to sending mails to scanning to taking pictures etc, you just name it. For want of a better word, is a mobile office on its own or that we now have cars that don't use petrol but electricity. Now here's the best one cos when he was alive , he was very big on all these Professional jobs like being a doctor, engineer etc. I can imagine the look on his face when I say we have some people who call themselves Influencers and are making so much money. And that being a DJ, Photographer, Events Manager, Make up Artist and so on, is the new stock in trade. I am sure he would have a fit if I tried to explain Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency to him. 

(Please stay with me guys, I am heading somewhere. It's very important you don't lose this trail of thought).

Now depending on the number of green bottles in the system, l can now decide to even go as far back as 1960 to have a conversation with my late grandfather about what's happening in 2020. I am as sure as anything that he wont even be able to relate. If care is not taken, a lot of us are going to be like them while alive without even knowing. 

(Now this is where I hit you all hard with some home truth)

If in 2020, you don't have a strong online presence and you have not been able to infuse technology into what you do, you are gradually becoming the relic of a lost age. If you are still a generalist and not identified a Niche area you would want to specialize in then in the words of Dbanj, "you are sitting on a long thing". It means that you have a machine gun approach to life. By this I mean you are shooting in any direction with the hope of hitting somebody without focusing on anybody and then end up hitting nobody (No Pun Intended and I got this analogy from another Mentor of mine by the name of Steve Harris). 

In a few words, SPECIALIZATION is the new name of the game.