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Obasanjo’s Internet – Anita Ashiru

Posted on by Damilola Oyeleke

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, Art Director and Production Designer, Anita Ashiru, talks to us about how she uses Obasanjo’s Internet. 

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

I pick up my phone to check for messages and emails, and then I write my to-do list for the day.

How do you use the internet for work or pleasure?

For both. So the kind of work I do involves a lot of creativity and staying in touch with trends. When a new product is out, I have to be part of the first set of people to see it. I’m constantly reading up stuff, checking out people’s social media pages –  I stalk a lot of photographers, cinematographers and other creators. I want to know what’s trending on TikTok or in the music industry and stuff like that because it inspires my work. 

I’m also always up to date on Twitter or Instagram, I want to know what’s going on around me before I even go out. I want to check to see the traffic situation on Twitter, I want to know if there’s any robbery because a few months ago they were robbing in Ikoyi while I was in that area. I found out on Twitter, so I had to take another route. The Internet also helps me with things like Google Maps. Even if I’ve been to the place a billion times, I still want Google Maps to confirm that I’m taking the right route so I’m not wasting my time on the road by passing like a traffic route or something. 

And then for personal use, I stay in touch with friends. 

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

The BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) era was a time where I really broke into the internet. I remember when BlackBerry became a thing, it was like “if you don’t have a BlackBerry what are you doing? Are you really here?” So it became a thing for me to connect with people from all around, really fast. 

I grew up in Ibadan and Ibadan is kind of small, so we used to stay in touch through BBM group chats. When there was an event or someone’s birthday, we would create a group chat with everybody who was coming for the party. The group chats back then on BlackBerry were way more interactive than WhatsApp because you could have a media file where anybody on that group could upload things like dress code or examples of what to wear. We also used to coordinate what to bring, our contributions to the party, food, things like that. It was as if I was building some sort of friendship tree on BBM with people I had never even met before.

That kind of inspired me to start a blog because we needed another place where we could share more ideas, stories, gossip and just expand the group into something more open. I started the blog with my best friend at maybe 15 or 16 and it became profitable very very very quickly. For Ibadan, it was big because in a day I’d get like 1000 people coming to my blog. That’s a big number. 1000 teenagers used to come to my blog – I was an influencer! and I didn’t even know it was called influencing. All we used to do was post pictures of parties we went to and gist about how the party was, nothing serious. It was really just a banter blog for people in our circle, but slowly it became a thing amongst my age group at the time in Oyo state. You want to know where to shop for nice clothes? You want to know where to hang out and meet new people or where the next hot party is? And then people started paying us to talk about stuff. Fashion brands at the time in Ibadan would ask me to take pictures of their clothes, so I’d go with my friends and we would actually style ourselves in their clothes, take pictures and post on the blog. It was really just a blog for fun that became an online magazine for teenagers. And what did I know? I was just looking for fun with my best friend. I didn’t even think that was anything. But I loved it so much and I decided that it was what I wanted to do. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew it would be something in the media that involved telling stories and sharing experiences. That inspired me to study journalism because journalism was the closest to what I was doing. I believed journalism could also give me the freedom to learn about the media industry;  photography, how to write, research, produce and broadcast. So just that access to BBM inspired my blogging passion and tilted me in that direction of media and while I was in University, I did a course in advertising that made me realise that was what I wanted to do. I love advertising.

Even in university, the internet helped me with research. There are so many things you won’t learn in class and even your lecturers won’t know. So if we’re learning about documentaries and I have an idea on what to produce, I need to be able to see similar documentaries that has been done around that topic. The Internet, YouTube, Google inspires a new angle. You want to do a documentary about black hair? What about black hair has been told? What’s the history of black hair? Where do you get this information from? Not books, because the internet also gives you access to real people telling their stories, right? Real life human beings are telling you their day to day stories, and you can even reach out to people. The internet has helped my life oh. I’m just even thinking about it because I’ve never really processed it the way I’m doing now. 

Your favourite social media platform and why?

Pinterest, because I’m a creative and I love staying inspired. I love seeing work from other creators around the world and Pinterest really just connects me with people – photographers, artists, designers, models, curators – I’ve met so many people who have inspired my crafts.  The algorithm there is also really good, it’s always going to feed you content similar to what you searched or saved. It allows you to expand, especially because of the work I do. Most times when I’m feeling very uninspired or when I don’t have an idea on how to approach a brief, I just go to Pinterest for inspiration.  And also like, I talk to a lot of creators, curators and designers on there as well. 

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?

It was on Twitter. I think Halloween a couple years ago, I dressed as Buhari and that was the time Buhari’s missing certificate was trending. So I posted a picture of myself sleeping in the office with the certificate on the table and Twitter went crazy. My anxiety creeped in o. I was afraid. I muted that tweet because I just did this for my 10 followers or my 10 friends, I didn’t expect it to go viral like, everybody please relax. It was more anxiety than even enjoying the virality.  

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

It might still be the Buhari post because you know when you’re touching on politics, it’s like you’re exposing yourself to a mob. I think it’s that or most recently there was a tweet that was kind of viral about a model’s experience on set and about how a director kicked her out of set because of her skin color or something like that. I quoted that tweet and talked about another experience where an artist disrespected a model and the director stood up for the model. People had mixed feelings about that, saying it wasn’t true. I just muted it – see, I don’t like anything that’ll stress my peace of mind. If something is already stressing me I’d either delete it or mute it. Most times I don’t delete it because it’s already out there and there’s no point. So I just muted it. Everybody will be fine, please wipe your tears. 

What rules do you live by on the internet?

For Instagram, I don’t know if it’s really ideal but only post what you want people to know about you. Instagram is very visual and because of the way social media is, we’re kind of forced to live a certain lifestyle so that people will think we’re happy or we’re popping. You get to see people living fake life where they go out to take pictures just to post on social media. For me, if I’m not happy that day, I won’t take a picture or post it. I only post what I want people to know about me, not who I am not. It’s so easy to get carried away with having a superficial life especially because people are able to have a different brand on social media than in reality.  I just keep it real. Keeping it real is also my major mantra. I mean, the people who are attracted to who you are, are the kind of people you need around you. Not people you have to pretend to be around.

What is your guiltiest online pleasure?

Hm, TikTok. I like TikTok. I don’t even know how it happened but I always find myself going to Tiktok and I’ll just get sucked into the dark hole and it’s just – yeah, it’s Tiktok.

Would you say you have an online persona?

Yeah, people think I’m too serious. Most people meet me in reality and they’re like, “wait, you don’t give off your Instagram vibe”. I’m like, “what do you mean?” I also wear glasses so that’s all you get to really see. I don’t really post many videos of myself, just pictures.

So you just see this serious-looking person, but when you meet me, you’ll now see a bit of goofiness. You’re like, wait, you don’t seem like the same person on your Instagram. So I guess I think I have an online persona but for me, I’m just myself.

What’s your favorite emoji and why?

I have a couple. I like the bombastic side eye emoji because most times I’m dealing with artisans or people sending me budgets and my reaction is mostly “ehn! you want to kill me?” 

I also like glossy eyes when I’m trying to express my feelings. I just like it, I think it’s also cute. Thinking about it, i’ve never answered this question before. I just like it. 

Are you particular about your feed?

Not really. I really don’t care but sometimes I find that it just happens naturally. You know how people always design their feeds? Sometimes it just aligns. There are times I post similar content so it looks okay, while other times it looks messy. 

The only time I pay attention to my feed is if I feel like I have too many posts and its looking a bit noisy. Like, why do I have over 1000 posts? So I clean it up, but not because of aesthetics. 

And again, as I said, I post what I want people to know about me. If there’s something that I’ve kind of moved on from I can archive those posts or delete them, but I don’t really pay attention to aesthetics to be honest. 

YouTube or TikTok? Which do you prefer and why?

I think TikTok. I used to like YouTube because people had channels to teach others stuff and you get to learn too. I loved watching vlogs as well. But then my problem with Youtube had always been the duration of time for one video. Like you’d sit there and watch one video for 15 minutes. It’s long.

But meanwhile, on Tiktok you can still get that kind of content. Now it’s more bite-sized. People are more intentional with the way they craft their content on Tiktok because they want you to learn in 60 seconds. They want you to take away something in that short period, so I take in much more there than I would on Youtube in the same amount of time. 

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

Justin UG.

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

This is hard. I don’t know why this is hard. I need to check who I stalk every day. There’s this French artist I’m obsessed with, Yseult. I just love, love, love her, but she doesn’t have anything on her page. I think she’s the coolest person I follow.

Davido used to follow me but I think he unfollowed me at some point because he was cleaning up his Instagram. Maybe the coolest people who follow me would be my idols Jade Osiberu and TY Bello. I was really excited when they followed me. 

What is your favourite Nigerian podcast?

I Said What I Said.

Have you ever hooked up with someone you met online?

No, I haven’t.

5 people you’d love to see answer these questions 

Taiwo Adeyemi, Justin UG, Deji Oluokun, Dammy Twitch and Director K.

Read previous Obasanjo’s Internet entries here.