✾⚘The Real Deal⚘✾

         It had been an awesome ride living in a virtual world and interacting with others virtually. It was the most enthralling thing ever. (◉‿◉)

I learned to fight for what was right even though it seemed like evil was more dominant.

Things were going great with Zeph. We made plans to meet in some months. It was completely unbelievable how this happened. I often asked myself if that would have been possible without my gadget. It was an incomprehensible question.

          One morning, I answered a call from my Mom in the living room. I hurried downstairs and I met a lady and a man, seated on the living room couch. I greeted them and I was instructed by my mother to sit.

"I am Phoebe, and this is my partner, George," the lady proceeded, "we are from an organization called 'The Next Gen,' and we are out to impact the lives of young people like you the best way we can."

"Oh, okay." I was slightly confused about their presence.

"You see, I and my team for a long time now have been educating young people about the impacts of social media as this is  increasingly becoming a problem for young adults."

"So..." I turned again to look at give my mom a quick stare, then the lady and the man; I was muddled. ಠᴥಠ

"I met your parents a long time ago, during that church program 'Technology and your Teen— T&T' and we had a series of conversations."

"Aisha's mother invited them over," my mom interfered.

"During the interactive sessions, so many parents spoke of how they deprived their kids from gaining any access to a phone, or having access to a phone but no access to the internet, or having access to the internet but being aware of their every deed on that phone. This produced a rowdy argument between everyone. The whole argument was leading to one question: whether social media has layed positive impacts in the lives of youths today or negative."

George took over from her, "Your mother happened to be one of the parents who mentioned that she hadn't gotten you a phone yet because she wanted to be very sure that you can handle it."

"I told them that I know my daughter and that you wouldn't be able to handle it, that it would distract you and change you. I wanted to protect you from evil as much as possible even here in the real world where there's just too much evil. I never wanted my child to be corrupted, that's why I don't let you have too much friends, I don't let you go out and I monitor every single thing you do and watch you very, very, very closely." 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭?!

"We told her that she was wrong to an extent. After a series of arguments, we came to a conclusion saying that the only way to profoundly finalize our deep studies on the impact of social media on young people was to get the parents who deprived their kids from having phones, to actually get them a phone and allow us weigh the results. While some disagreed, a lot of people did agree, one of which was your Mom."

"We created a little group chat for this and asked them to closely watch your behaviours and inform us about it every minute. We thought it was a little too extreme, well not until the research was going really well and it was kind of fun. We realized that you and the other teenagers had so many things in common regarding your behaviours towards social media and gadgets, especially being newly introduced to such."

George continued, "We had to keep this process going on for a long time so that your inability to succeed on the internet would not be ascribed to your recency to it. We had to keep waiting and watching to see if you would outgrow certain things.

"When that immoral video went viral, it took heaven and earth to make your parents calm down. We had to hope for the best since there was nothing they could do, not even taking away your phone could fix it. But when they saw that you had, by yourself, steered clear of social media after the incident, we knew we were on the right track. It took vehement efforts and conviction to get your parents on our side. Parents were willing to take the risk even though they almost gave up at some point. When some of them saw how much good it distilled in the life of their kids, they were willing to ignore the negative side for the main time just to help us gain enough knowledge to make conclusions. Presently, we are left with twelve standing teenagers out of thirty, you included.

"Your parents have been reporting your activities here and online just within their knowledge and that's why we're here to obtain more knowledge from you now that it seems like the phase is all over and you're matured, strong and capable. I also learned about your deal with Zeph. That's a good one, Temi. We are so proud of you."

I broke down in tears.

They turned to my mother, wondering why I was sobbing and she said, "she takes after me—I get very emotional sometimes."

𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬! (－‸ლ)

I couldn't figure out exactly why I was in tears. It was probably because I had been a subject of study for a really long time and I disappointed them.

"No, you didn't fail. You taught us a lot of lessons not just concerning the internet but concerning a teenage girl battling with all the complexities that comes with this stage." Phoebe leaned towards me and patted me on the back. "You're our most successful result in case you don't know."

"I'd like to propose a dinner. Are you interested?" George asked.

"Yes," I wiped my eyes.

"So we can talk more."

       Before I could tell what was happening, I was having dinner with two representatives from one of the most biggest organizations in West Africa, speaking to them about my experience on social media. They decided that they wanted to make a book out of my experience and that of the others and have me draw the characters. I was completely thrilled!

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            While Remi and Aisha were arguing about a movie they had watched, I was focused on a sad little boy, staring into his phone's screen, seated at a distance. I approached him and stooped before him with a smile.

"Hi, I'm Temi. What's your name?"

He hung a leg, "I'm Damien," his accent was American. "Did my parents send you to watch me?"

"No, no. I just saw you being all moody from over there and I was moved to talk to you."

"Oh."

"I've got a friend named Damien."

He was quiet and I pressed further. "So, why are you blue, Damien?"

"It's this stupid game." He angrily kicked his little bag that layed on the floor before him.

"What game?" I asked inquisitively.

"Do you play video games?"

"Not really, no."

"Lady, lemme alone."

"I don't play video games but I could maybe design a video game character. Tell me what's wrong."

"My friends—they keep beating me in this online game and bragging about it online. I've tried and tried but I just can't access level one hundred!"

"Hold on, is this phone actually yours?"

"Yeah, why?"

"How old are you?"

"Eleven, why?"

"And you own a phone? And you're on the internet?"

"Duh. Every cool kid in my class has got a phone. Only dorks stay off the socials cause they don't wanna get 'corrupted' " he air quoted, "my parents got me this bad boy on my eleventh birthday."

"And you chat and stuff?"

"Yeah, lady. Why do you seem so surprised? You dorky too?"

"Damien, I'll be back."

I stepped away from the young boy and went into the toilet to meditate for a while. I was completely taken aback. Little Damien made me realize what I hadn't realized before; that the forthcoming generation are going to have more access to the internet than ever and at a really tender age. Damien looked so sad when I first set my eyes on him, he was troubled about the virtual world; he could be stripped off of his innocence at such age.

        A lot of people craved for relevance in the virtual world; the real world didn't matter anymore.

I found myself asking the same question over and over again: "which is the real deal: the outside world or the virtual world?"

The battle between the virtual world and the real world was real and not much people seemed capable of handling it.

     I was glad that the dark phase was over. I was glad about my profound knowledge of each and every one of the socials to help me survive in there.

I wasn't social media's definition of cool but I knew the rules.

    ✯♡♡♡♡♡♡✯

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