'Social Media...*gulp* ah! Feel Good!'

Ohla Bee!

Happy New Week and A Smurfilicious Monday to you!!!!

Can you believe it's January the 23rd?!!!

January is actually taking a giant leap towards the beginning of 2018!

Hehehehehehe.

I had a splendid weekend. Nothing vavavoom happened but I got time alone with me at work( Being away from Baby booboo helps me re-strategize. Helps you unclog all the spitups and drool from your brain. You get to function as an independent being (the lies I tell myself) and dabble in some adult conversation with un- man babies( apparently, this here is a word in my nanny's dictionary.           man baby

 /man ˈbeɪbi/

1.

a very young child who seems to already have their 'adult faces.'

"My cute man baby! I already know what you'd look like all grown up,' cooed Grandma. 

synonyms:adult

, full grown.

It now makes sense why most moms seem to always be on the lookout for where to drop the young ones so they can sneak off to the movies. 

Speaking of movies, I saw this really interesting movie, 'Nerve.' It revolves round a game which requires players to sign on as;

*** Watcher( where they form monitoring spirits on other people's timelines; giving them dares and all),               *** Players ( exactly what it says. Play the game and basically act as puppets for the Watchers who determine your every move) and like I got to find out in the end,

***Prisoners ( This is the game's purgatory. Turn into a talebearer and try running to the police and you get 'eliminated.' The possibilities of which is endless. To cut the long story short, your own don be.)

The Ibos say, ' Anaghi eji hee ana agba na nti agba n'anya.' I'm using this in the context that you don't give a child fire to play with. Which, really, was what those Watchers were doing; playing with fire. As it is, the mind of a human , scratch that, a child, is open to endless possibilities and if left unbridled especially when it's veering off course to the deep end, is hmmm colossal damage waiting to happen!  It's bad enough that kids are left in the same environment and made to learn how to survive in the name of school ( story for another day. I've never really understood why we all can't be home schooled and everyone gets to stay in their own lane. Tor!) and then the bullying that happens therein. Now, you knowingly give humans a game where there are no rules or restraints to the magnitude or consequences of a dare.

Serious hall pass.

So back to where we were. The motivating factor in being in the game would have to be the likes and viewers rating  one gets. I mean, who doesn't want to wake up in the morning and see that a thousand and onety one people have 'liked' their picture on say, IG. The feel good mechanism transmits waves to the brain and them  personified emotions (like the ones on InsideOut) go jumping all over the place. 

Oh and did I mention the Players get paid for each dare they complete successfully? Yessirree! Go-an-kii-yarsef-an-die-by-yasef dares like laying down on a railroad and wait for a train to pass with you there. And record it (else it doesn't count). Watchers get to pay to watch and Prisoners get their whole identity stolen from them. ( Imagine MMM freezing again and then wiping all the money you made from it PLUS the extra innocent money you had in your account!)

It's like the study has shown; social networking triggers off the feel good hormone, ' Oxytocin.' It's the same one released during labor and which helps build the bond between mom and baby( I've ALWAYS wondered how it is that people just ABSOLUTELY adore their newborns. I used to say that I hoped there was some kind of cosmic miracle that happened at birth to just make you fall totally in love with your baby because if there wasn't, I'd be in for in it. Turns out there was really nothing to be worried about. God in His awesomeness, took care of that). 

So, yes... Oxytocin fuels the joy in you when you go online and someone has liked or viewed something of yours. Man's innate need for belonging?? You decide. That would explain why a lot of people would go to great lengths to 'peak' on social networking sites. Which I guess is great. Whatever works for you. Whatever happens on social media doesn't necessarily stay on social media these days, anyways. So for the Nerve players, I'd have probably told them to calm down and stop bouncing off walls, upandan. Use social networking tools as exactly that. Tools. Not for negativity or the constant tearing down of others. But to help build up (insert people/business/brands) , connect and motivate.

Above all, be true to you.

Do you.

Be you.

 PS. On a lighter note, imagine Nerve was a trending game. Would you sign up? And as what?

Toodles!

Cee