Chapter 9: Chapter 9

Eight

This should totally rank No1 on my favorite topics, "SOCIAL MEDIA" the beginning of "madness" in the lives of everyone, both old and especially  young. We totally live for it.

A very distant uncle of mine said it actually didn't start from Facebook, as many of us have told ourselves, he says it started from the very day the word "Email" was born, but I'm very certain the email Madness wasn't as viral and contagious as the Facebook insanity. Then came various others like, 2go, badoo, wechat, smiggle, palmchat, WhatsApp, and the reigning king, Instagram. And so on.

Although this thing called "Social media" has helped a reasonable amount of people promote their businesses and has also given many youths the opportunies to shine, I've still got to say it has also been the very cause; if not the greatest cause of suicide, depression and deaths all over the world.

I can say this proudly because I'm one of it's victims.

I'm not going to stand here and act all righteous like I'm not one of these superficial youths slash teenager that place all their self esteem, joy and happiness on the amount of likes, comments and followers I've got.

I literally wake up everyday to check the Status of everyone on my WhatsApp contact list and if it's good enough for a repost? Then i screenshot it, post and act like i came up with the entire post without giving credit to the original source because the acclaimed "original source" probably stole it too.

So yeah, it's been a month since i kinda stood up to Ruth and it seemed like after that, things magically changed, I became kinda popular all of a sudden. I don't know how everyone in the art department got the gist,...oh yeah, someone actually had their video camera on while the whole drama played and the particular someone who like me is a slave to social media decided to post the video on the school blog. And that's how the video of the Two Fashion Design Girls Fighting Over Boyfriends In Yabatech  went viral up to the extent that it landed on Opera mini news, and we all know Opera mini gets their  leftover scoops from Linda Ikeji's blog.

So to cut the long story short, I became the Badass Star slash Laughing stock of the whole world. Everyone on social media seemed to have their opinions.

"The stupidity that goes on in Nigeria Universities these days sha, these young girls should be focusing on their education not competing for Who kissed whos Boyfriend. Oshi jati jati" one Mrs Kofo Adejuyitan commented on instablogs instagrams post of the video.

"Na wa o, and these girls are somebody's daughters? Tag their parents , LMFAO" someone commented on the facebook.

"Look at them stupid ashewos, your mothers should be ashamed" someone commented on Linda's blog.

" if it's kissing they want, me I'm ready o. Should I drop my phone number?, Lol" commented a pervert on Twitter.

Well, luckily for me, my parents hadn't  seen he video nor the nasty comments,  unlike the parents of Ruth who I heard had he beaten to stupor and also seized her phone and anything related to the internet. Apparently, her dad was a pastor and her mom, the good women leader of the church.

I didn't need to be told that, that was the end of my friendship with Ruth, and if I ain't cool with Ruth, then I ain't cool with the other three. I became lonely even when surrounded by people who wanted to be related to the latest social media sensation.

I decided I really had to forward the date of my death as soon as possible.

I just wish these people knew the amount of pain their hurtful comments caused me and Ruth, and how they made me cry myself to sleep and find solace in being alone in the dark all the time.

Gradually I watched myself lose weight, I stopped talking to people , deleted all my social media accounts, I mean, it was the reason I was in this mess after all. Like if there wasn't a thing called "Social media" then maybe that little banter I had with my friend would have just been a mere quarrel and who knows maybe we would still be friends now.  If it wasn't for the media I wouldn't be getting sexual harassment from the boys in my school, neither would I be getting stares and nasty remarks from people I've never met whenever i walk on the streets.

Do people know how I feel when I see two guys standing in the corner, laughing at me as i walk by?. Or do they know how I feel when they deliberately replay that video because they know I'm within earshot, or do they know I feel like ending my life every moment i see a tag relating to the video?. I really wish people would know this, and maybe, just maybe they would stop.

I woke up this morning, picked my phone up and the first thing I see is message from my mom which goes...

"Hello Star, how are you? I hope you're fine, and not brokenhearted like your dad and myself. Do you know how humiliating it was when your dad got a call from his boss asking him to check a video he'd sent to him on WhatsApp to confirm if it wasn't his daughter fighting over some boy? You've made your father a laughing stock in his place of work and you know how much he cherishes his reputation. You're a big disgrace Star and on this day i curse the day i gave birth to you. I just want to let you know that we won't be having a thing to do with your education as soon as you end this semester, who knows, you might be pregnant already.  Shameless child. Everyone here is ashamed of you, especially me. Goodbye."

I smiled, closed my eyes and thought aloud.

"I guess it's happening today, after all."