Doing things...
And documenting the knowledge too
I messed up in November 2023.
When the X app got sold, I remember my outrage at the consequences of transferring the platform to a capitalist glutton whose claim to fame was announcing his ‘brilliance’ while swallowing the substance of emerging tech companies, like Pac-Man in the hands of an expert player, and distributing propaganda to cover up the ghosts he dodged (pun intended). It took another six months before I decided the app had become a harmful environment; first for the audiences I support on the job, and then for myself, someone who used it sparingly and occasionally shared pictures when I felt cute.
I remember being in a training session for activists, and one of the participants, a woman of blessed memory, argued passionately that the new owner’s “brilliance” would democratise thought leadership on the platform. That conversation left a bitter taste in my mouth. My assumption was that activists whose focus is on inclusive democracy for women would easily see the intersection of profit and rights-respecting innovation.
The first sign of decline was the quality of conversations. New users may not believe it, but Twitter discourse from 2015–2021 was highly intellectual, with a healthy dose of humour and wit. The discourse influenced pop culture, ethics, and even shaped what was socially acceptable. All that went to hell once the platform became monetised.
Now, Twitter was far from perfect. Its algorithm always favoured engagement over integrity. Once a user picked a political side and consistently posted triggering opinions, engagement skyrocketed. The more offended people got, the more they reacted. The more reactions, the more visibility. When users reported content, the right keywords could determine whether it got removed. This feature gave an illusion of a working society to many users globally until it didn’t.
I won’t bore you with more details of how things got bad, but the major event that made me let go of participation was the amplification of violence against women in micro and macro forms. 2023 was the year OGBV awareness went mainstream in Nigeria, with many “Justice for” hashtags that ended with women’s names. In certain cases, they were minors who faced the ultimate harm, users would troll accounts raising awareness about isolated cases of violence against women and say ‘na cruise’ or delete tweets in the face of overwhelming dissent.
As all this unfolded, my favourite feminist thought leaders were forced to self-censor to reduce harm to their community, while Twitter Feminists got the worst rep for daring to join voices on any matter at hand. Suddenly, reporting accounts that fueled rage-baiting posts resulted in machine-generated responses stating that the content did not violate “community rules”. In the time since I left, many of my predictions about content abuse have come to pass, and I feel bad that I didn’t do more to warn women about the exact harm they’ll face by continuing to engage on the platform.
In the past week, centre-left media houses in Nigeria have had to put out awareness campaigns about image-based sexual abuse against women where perpetrators are using AI to strip or clothe women in pictures they post online. Disgusting is an understatement, anyone who has an idea of intersectionality and the link between online and physical harm knows how scary a reality of this being a common occurrence is in today’s digital landscape. There’s already existing syndicates that produce and share explicit images of minors online, the moment we normalise this scale of perversion in the name of banter, we inadvertently legitimise behaviour that causes harm in real life.
You might ask, what can you do? for the most part platform have responsibility to moderate content but their obligation only kicks in when we take responsibility… Yes, as a platform user you have responsibilities too. Let’s go through them quickly;
You should get familiar with the terms of use on every platform you share your personal data on. The terms can be quite lengthy to read, here’s a hack, get on Youtube and search for summaries.
Depending on how often you engage on social media platforms, you need to be intentional about the people you’re engaging and what they engage. The moment you start coming across outlandish posts that are far from what you’d normally engage, someone/something is poisoning your algorithm. Audit your following
Lastly and most controversially, starve the supply! these image manipulation tools need steady supply of your images for bad actors to exploit them. Your need for external validation must not override your need for self-preservation, stop giving exploitative platforms (especially the one that rhymes with the man you caught cheating in 2020) free supply of your images.
Speaking of difficult things, I’ve been channelling that same energy into something personal: getting certified as a project manager. Studying as a professional is infinitely more challenging than full time in school. The exam questions demand techniques that feel completely alien to real-world practice, but I guess that’s the point, isn’t it? Growth hurts.
My study journey was made easier by the women who walked the path before me, particularly the one who put a PMP study plan together on a Google Doc with tutor links and other resources and encouragements to pass the exam. Like my leader will say “Nigerian women—achieve”. I know 3 PMPs and they all passed once using similar tutors and resources. Getting this information from them cut down a month of research for me. I’m currently studying on Udemy to achieve my 35 PDUs. Some videos I’ve watched seemed like appraisal comments from my manager (I hate that he was right because why as a man are you Right?) while others required basic knowledge of running projects. Lowkey I feel like PMPs designed my employers’ organisational matrix but let’s see how it goes, it’s a developing theory.
On the personal front, I’m preparing to let go of my beloved Bọ́láǹlé after seven wonderful years of navigating Lagos chaos together. Now I don’t know what the plan is after she gets sold but it’s about time to let someone else love her. That decision has me thinking about bigger life projects—my ideal house, job, life, and everything in between.
Well my next step would likely be to leave this chaotic ass city but I’m making small life adjustments leading up to the big one like; switching to microlocs to help my hair grow naturally and be easier to manage, keeping my promises to myself about my development, being more intentional about keeping things simple. To be more successful, I need to move like someone whose destination is greatness. People should be able to see my growth reflected in my habits, not just my ambition.
One major thing that needs to change now is to stop acting like I’m embarrassed by my gifts, I was given those gifts to share than with you and 5 others
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for you today. I didn’t enjoy much this week, but someone’s uncle decided to deflate my back tyre because I wouldn’t climb over other cars in traffic caused by his lunatic colleagues.
See why I have to leave this place?
Stay jiggy,