Obasanjo’s Internet – Aisha Alabi

Did you know that there are approximately 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide? Can you imagine all the different ways in which we all use the internet? Obasanjo’s Internet is our interview series where we speak to some of our internet favourites on how they relate to the internet and what it means to them and their work. This week, Aisha Alabi, content creator and host of Tea Time with Aisha, talks to us about how she uses Obasanjo’s Internet. 

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?

So I wake up two times in the morning. The first time is to pray either the Tahajjud prayer or my fajr prayer. So if I wake up for my fajr prayer, more likely than not, I’m still tired, which is like around 5 a.m. So I wake up for prayer and then I’ll go right back to sleep. So when I wake up the second time, I’m scrolling to see my emails, to see who texted me, to see what’s going on on TikTok.

How do you use the internet for work or pleasure?

I’m a content creator so I feel like it’s a mix like work sometimes is pleasure, if that makes sense. So like both.

What moment or episode in your life would you say captured the essence of the internet?

Two times actually. So, one that sticks out is in 2022, I was having the worst year of my life. I was so depressed. I wouldn’t create, I wouldn’t get up. I was like a couch potato for like months and then Ayra’s Rush was coming out and so she had posted a snippet to Instagram of the song and it was like a cute video where she was like going around the tables – like short form content, right? And I don’t know why that song resonated with me so much, but it led me down a rabbit hole of Ayra Starr. Like, obviously I already knew who she was but now I’m like, oh, I wanna know who she is. I wanna know how her mind works. So I was watching an interview from her and in one of the interviews, she was basically saying like, oh yeah, she doesn’t have time for men right now, this stage of her life is just about chasing her dreams and you know, bossing up to the level where she wants to. there’s just no room for men to come in and distract her from that. And for me that message was so empowering and the fact that I could just go on YouTube whilst still being a couch potato and watch that interview and be inspired to get off my butt and get back to what I love doing and not let somebody’s crusty son put me in a depressed state. Yeah, that was a moment. I always tell people that Ayra cured my depression. Ayra and God, OK. 

And then the second time was the first time I ever learned about Palestine outside of an academic setting. I feel like what you learn about Palestine in school is vastly different from the real raw information that depicts what they’re actually experiencing. And Bisan is the girl that I’ve actually watched for a couple of years now at this point who got me interested in the free Palestine Movement and being able to be teleported to someone living basically in really sad – It’s like Anne Frank, but today, you know what I mean?

Like, we don’t have a diary to refer to, we have live streams and real posts every day being posted. And I was like, oh wow, if Anne Frank had a phone and internet, we probably would have been getting that for that time, which is so crazy. So I think those two moments really made me realize, like, shout out to the internet. Shout out to TikTok and the internet.

Your favourite social media platform and why? 

TikTok. I feel like TikTok has taught me more about life than school has. Shout out to TikTok. I love it so much. It’s good and bad because now we’re all chronically online. I can find myself scrolling for like two hours straight, which is so sad. Why am I on any application for two hours straight? But I don’t know, TikTok just does it for me. And then right after that is YouTube.

What was the last meme you saved?

Do you remember the first time something you posted went viral? What was it? How did it make you feel?

I think I’ve had a couple of viral moments on social media, but I feel like the first viral moment that was like, “Wait. Hold up, y’all like me?” was when I went to Italy and this was still COVID time. But if you remember, some countries had a ban, you couldn’t travel to them from whatever country you were in. At the time, Italy was on that list and I was kind of going through a breakup at the time. So my approach to social media was so different and everything just kind of worked out in my favor. One of my best friends and I, were like, “Oh, if Italy opens up, we’re buying tickets, we’re going.” And this is like a birthday trip. 

So anyways, two days after the day we said we wanted to go, they opened up Italy on the list. We bought our tickets and a week later we were in Italy and I remember I posted a picture. All of our TikToks were doing so good at that time but it was the picture I posted to Instagram of me at the Duomo leaning against the balcony in this orange Oh Polly dress with my hair to the side. That picture went mega viral. That picture was just doing its rounds, I’m seeing everybody reposting it and then for days it was just getting reposted and reposted and reposted and reposted. 

I don’t know which one happened first, was it my TikTok that was making people go to my Instagram or my Instagram making people go to my TikTok, so it was like a cross combination of things happening but I was like, whoa don’t go viral guys, because your DMS and everything are just gonna be like crazy. That was the one time where I was like, this is a hefty thing. I went from 5000 followers to 12,000 followers in the span of two weeks, it wasn’t even up to two weeks.

What’s the most outrage you have ever generated over something you posted? How did you react to it? 

So I remember it was still around the same time. I had just come back from Italy and I think I was more active on TikTok. Like I said, I love Tiktok and I think another Eid was coming up or something like that. So on TikTok, they were talking about a masjid that’s in our community. It’s called the Turkish masjid. If I remember correctly, they were basically glamorizing the masjid and saying, “oh make sure you go do your nikkah there,” yada yada yada. “This is the perfect place to go do your nikkah.” If you don’t know what nikkah is, it’s like an Islamic marriage, right? So I basically made a stitch to that video saying yeah, “if you’re not black, go there to do your Nakai, but if you’re black do not go there because they’re racist.” I’m basically saying all the encounters that I’ve had that made me feel very uncomfortable and were borderline microaggressions against black people or Africans, by brown people. Oh my God, the brown community was up in arms. My video was taken and posted on different blogs from Tiktok to Instagram to Facebook. Everybody was like, “oh look at the way she dresses. That’s probably why they –”  I was getting attacked left and right, y’all. And then I was just like “um, yeah, I don’t care” because obviously I’m not an idiot. I would never go to my holy place dressed in a way that I know isn’t appropriate. Same way you wouldn’t go to your grandparents’ house dressed a certain way, you know what I mean? And yeah, they wouldn’t say Salam, they wouldn’t do this, they wouldn’t do that. This is my experience and something that brown people love to do is to tell people how to feel. So I feel like it just started a lot of conversation between black people and Muslims of color against brown people and Arab Muslims. It was a lot of discourse. Even to date, I still see that video floating around.

What rules do you live by on the internet?

I’m very aware, especially now of my digital footprint. So I’m like, yeah, if I wouldn’t want my kids to see me reflected in this light, maybe I shouldn’t post it. I don’t really like to get myself involved in controversial topics that I’m not actually passionate about. I’m just a regular human being. I’m not the person who’s gonna come and save the world, please. I’m so sorry. Unless I’m super passionate about it, I don’t care. 

Bullying is an absolute, no, no. I’d rather talk to my friends about it if something rubs me the wrong way. But to make a whole video making someone feel bad about themselves is just not really my M.O, especially now. I just feel like we’re adults and I think we’re quite privy to the effect social media has on people and I just would hate to be a part of the reason why someone harms themselves or is in depression or anything like that. So, yeah, be kind.

What is your guiltiest online pleasure?

It’s two. One is year round; I love to watch a pimple popper video. I don’t care. I can end up going into a rabbit hole of watching pimple popping videos for hours and hours and hours. Like, I don’t know, something about it is just so satisfying. And then my other one is especially when I’m fasting, or when I can’t eat food, I’m gonna watch a mukbang. I’m gonna start watching everything that for some reason I’ve decided not to eat every other day of the year when I wasn’t fasting. Now I’m gonna just be sitting there salivating and my stomach grumbling. Oh my God, it’s so bad. 

Would you say you have an online persona?

I feel like at some point, I did. Just with life in general, you have transitions where you’re more present in one role of your personality than others and so I feel like I’ve had phases where I’m like, ok, everybody knows me as a social media older sister where I come on here and I give you all real tea and advice, especially with Tea Time obviously. And then other times I’m like super inactive because I’m going through real-life stuff and you know, life is actually happening behind the screen. So yeah, I feel like to an extent I do.

What’s your favorite emoji and why?

The one with the puppy dog eyes. I use it a lot. And the crying and laughing one. I love that one. So I love the first one because I feel like I’m just a baby! Like I’m just a girl.

So when I’m asking somebody to do something for me or I’m asking for something, I always have to add that because it’s like the extra razzle dazzle and because I feel like I can make that face in real life. If you know me, then you know what I’m saying when I say this. 

The crying and laughing emoji is not just for when something is funny, it’s also for when something is messed up. I feel like these depict my expressions quite accurately.

Are you particular about your feed?

I’ve always been super particular about my feed. Right now, a hater got my Instagram account taken down but prior to that happening, if you were able to go through my feed, you would see that from time, I’ve always had like a way that I wanted my Instagram to be displayed when people went on to my account. I wanted to give an experience. When I started Instagram I used to do the white blocks – like three white blocks before my next colour theme. So champ! Oh my God, I remember I would do a blue era, a green era, a brown and nude era, and among those pictures of myself, you would also see pictures of chocolate or pictures of the forest or a picture of a tiger on my feed. If it went along with the color theme that I was going with, oh baby it was going on there. And then of course we graduated from those kinds of posts on Instagram to just aesthetically pleasing and really nice filler photos. I think I really love a nice feed. I like pretty things. I like when things look easy on the eyes and you’re just like, “Oh this is a pleasant time, a good user experience” but with TikTok, not so much. TikTok is just to post whatever and have a good time.

YouTube or TikTok? Which do you prefer and why?

Oh, I don’t know. I feel like I love them equally for different things. If I had to choose, I’m going to choose TikTok because I think it’s a better search engine in general. But YouTube will always have a special place in my heart. I literally put up YouTube for everything. If my baby cousin is here and she needs to watch something so that she can, you know, be educated and still entertained, I’ll put on YouTube. I also feel like I learn so much from TikTok. I find and connect with so many different people and creators on TikTok. And it’s right there in my hand. You know, I can just watch it regularly as opposed to having to turn my phone. YouTube; I wanna watch a movie, I wanna watch a vlog, I wanna get the full scope of somebody’s personality and not just like a little clip. I love YouTube, YouTube is an OG. 

Which Nigerian creator do you think the world needs to see and hear more of?

There’s an influencer for everyone, but I feel like for me, one that is just so good and low-key underrated is Amy Okoli. She is so underrated and I say this because Amy is such a cool person and she has substance that she brings onto the internet. Of course, she’s a girly. She’s creating content, all of that lifestyle, but she’s in law school as well and I feel like it’s giving the best of both worlds. Her organizational skills are so good. She’s so put together in a way that she’s able to balance and juggle her life and I think that that’s such a good thing for the younger crowd to take in and be able to see that you don’t have to quit school to become a content creator. You can do both, you can document all facets of your life and still have a presence online and people connect with you, creating a niche.

But on the other side of things, I love me some Layi Wasabi. He is so funny. Oh my God.

The Law? He’s hilarious. I feel like anybody can watch him and cackle. It doesn’t even matter if you’re Nigerian or not. So, yeah, I would, I would say those two for me.

Who is the coolest person you follow and the coolest person who follows you?

Oh my God, the coolest person I follow and who follows me is Nikos Living. I love her. That’s another person who is so authentically themselves and shows up as themselves on the internet. Nothing is a facade. She’s so funny and her content is good content. Like you can’t hate her, you can’t help but just love her. She lives for a living. Baby, I wanna live for a living too.

What is your favorite Nigerian podcast?

Girl, you know, I gotta talk about myself. Tea Time With Aisha.  

With An S is cute and I feel like their overall show is very similar to what Tea Time was doing for the Lagos series. I like the way you guys conduct your interviews, relate with the guests, and just how fun the feed is/ You really bring people into the music world in a different way. So I would say With An S pod, I do like y’all.

Have you ever hooked up with someone you met online?

Hook up is subjective. We live in a digital era so I feel like a good percentage of the people I’ve met and built a connection with were connected online. And perhaps we had mutuals in real life that brought us together. I technically met my current partner online. He had followed me on Instagram from one of our mutuals and then I guess went through another one of our mutuals to meet me in person. He had already DM me on Instagram, low-key shot his shot. Not directly, but I knew what he was trying to do. I don’t regret it. I think that the internet has connected me with all types of people and I don’t regret it.

I do have one connection that’s a regret, but it’s okay.  That’s why you never date a fan.

5 people you’d love to see answer these questions 

Ejo, Olivia Arukwe, ThisToye, Angelica Kelechi and Yalissa Kargbo. 

Read previous Obasanjo’s Internet entries here