Obasanjo’s Internet – Vincent Desmond

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, Writer and Producer, Vincent Desmond talks to us about how he uses Obasanjo’s Internet. 

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

I’m actually very militant about this. For the past year, it’s been to make my bed. The first thing I do is make my bed and these days I’m trying to journal. I think almost every day this year, I have journaled. So it’s make my bed, journal and go off into the world.

That’s very healthy. A lot of people pick up their phones 

I won’t lie, after these first two things, I pick up my phone but I just try to get those first few minutes without my phone. The next thing I do is play a podcast or put on a playlist. I used to have this Rise and Shine playlist last year. I haven’t made one for this year, but there are particular songs that make me feel happy. So after I do those two things, I may play one of them, and yeah.

How do you use the internet for work or pleasure?

Both. Heavily both. Heavily work too because I think almost everything I do work wise revolves around the Internet. Freelance journalism these days is almost exclusively online. So I’m doing that, I’m producing videos, I’m contacting people, so, yeah. I think to be very honest, I’m just realizing that I use the internet 70% for work. 

Increasingly, I think my pleasure is becoming offline. It’s becoming removed from my phone and my laptop. I think, yeah, that is so interesting. I think I’m using the internet for work mostly now.

So there was a point where it was more for pleasure than for work?

Yeah, I would definitely say towards my late teens. It was definitely pleasure loaded and then over time I started doing more work and then it became 50/50. Now I think I’m really online just to keep up and to stay connected. I mean, because being online is just part of second nature now. But I think now I’m really online for work. Damn, I don’t know how I feel about that.

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

I would say the whole year of 2020, really. 2020 was when COVID happened, definitely. We were all stuck at home. I was stuck in Port Harcourt and I didn’t have anywhere to go with my friends for such a long time and thanks to the internet, I could still maintain a social life. And then Black Lives Matter happened which felt very monumental thanks to the internet and then END SARS happened. I think while all of this was happening, there were a lot of things happening in my own career and my own work and it just meant I was online a lot. 2020 was almost entirely spent on Twitter and on Google Docs for me, so it was an entirely digital year for me.

Your favourite social media platform and why? 

For the longest time it was Twitter. Okay, so I’ve gone back and forth. I was a huge fan of Instagram and then I became a huge fan of Twitter, and I still am a huge fan of Twitter. Okay, you know what? My final answer is Twitter. I am a talker who doesn’t want to talk, and Twitter allows me to yap at my own level.

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 actually can’t remember the first time but I think one of the earliest was when somebody said “You people give Beyonce more respect than you give your parents,” and I quoted the tweet saying “Well, my father didn’t release Lemonade, did he?” This was like in 2018, so this was before Renaissance. Today I would have said Renaissance but then it was lemonade.

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

Oh, I know this one because it’s on my Wikipedia page actually. That’s how much controversy it caused. I was dragged for weeks on end. I was posted on Instablog, on every fucking blog and it was because I said “I think the act of having kids is inherently selfish because I don’t think there’s any answer that you can give about having kids that will not start and begin with your desire. And I think for me, considering you’re talking about a whole existence, it’s a selfish act.” I didn’t say this in a moral way, or in a “being selfish is bad,” way. I thought that was stating facts but people ran with it and I got abused for the longest time.

And then I think a while back I discovered that it was on my Wikipedia page under personal life. That’s how much controversy it caused. I mean, I still stand on it and I really don’t care what anybody else has to say.

What rules do you live by on the internet?

I don’t think I have strict rules on the internet to be very frank. The rules I have are just the basic ones: kids are off-limits, try to be a slightly decent human.

These days I am trying to keep my personal life a little bit offline. I’m trying to be a little bit protective, especially when it comes to my romantic life which is shocking because I grew up on the internet in such a way that I would update people when I went on a date, when I came back from a date, what happened on the date, but now I’m trying to be a little bit private.

What do you mean by kids are off-limit?

There are times when people bully people who share opposing political views. I just don’t think you should ever mention their kids or make fun of them. And I’m saying this because I’ve seen people make fun of conservatives who I strongly do not agree with, but then they would make a joke about their kid being ugly or stuff like that, and it always feels weird to me. I just think kids should stay out of it.

What is your guiltiest online pleasure?

Stalking. I’m a very curious person. I enjoy knowing things. I enjoy doing 2 and 2 for no reason other than my pleasure. So if I think, “Huh, wait. What’s happening here? Oh my God, they’ve broken up.” I enjoy searching.

This is why I hate the fact that the likes feature is no longer on Twitter because I would go to the likes – “Why are you liking motivational tweets now?” “Why are you liking tweets about how you should protect your heart?” “Oh my God, it means you and your boyfriend have broken up.” That’s my favourite thing to do. 

Would you say you have an online persona?

I think my online persona is very much my real life persona if I’m being honest. I know what my online persona would be described as, and I think that’s also how you’d describe me in real life too.  

How do you think your online persona would be described? 

 It’s “gay writer who loves Beyonce.” Definitely. And maybe a little bit of “who talks a lot.” 

What’s your favourite emoji and why?

I have a lot of those actually. Let me see which is my most used right now. Okay, so I would say I have 3. I love the crying emoji but I use it as a laughing emoji. I love the emoji with the hand covering the mouth. For me, it looks very shady. It looks very “oops,” and that’s also what it feels like to me. And the sad puppy eyes emoji. That one for me, I think I use it in a “Hi daddy” type of way, yeah.

Are you particular about your feed?

Oh, very, very, very particular about my feed. I think it boils down to what I was saying about how the internet requires us to kind of upload part of our mind for it to work. I think when you’re online a lot your feed becomes kind of your mental field. For me, I say it often that the things I’m seeing kind of start affecting the person I am. My persona starts shifting, and the things I’m thinking start shifting. So because of that, I’m very, very strict. There are people I would follow on particular social media platforms but I wouldn’t follow on others.

This is a weird example but if someone is particularly sad and they tweet a lot of sad things, I wouldn’t follow them on Twitter because I am not trying to wake up every morning and feel sad because I’m reading what you’re tweeting every other day. I could follow you on Instagram where you post your pictures. So yeah, I’m very, very specific with it because I think I am very easily, unbelievably influenced.

YouTube or TikTok? Which do you prefer and why?

My answer is YouTube because YouTube has music videos. I live and die by music videos. I do so much on YouTube actually. I think I do more on YouTube than I do on TikTok, so for that reason I’ll say YouTube.

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

I don’t know if she’ll call herself a creator, but it’s Toke Temu. I love her because she does these very calming day in my life videos. And she makes everything look very, very beautiful and just very pretty. I’m obsessed with her feed, and I go whenever I want to feel calm and remember that life can be beautiful.

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

The coolest person who follows me is Beyonce’s creative director, actually two of them. One follows me on Instagram, the person who worked on lemonade a lot. And Makadsi who did a lot of the work on Renaissance, the Renaissance tour, the album cover and everything. He followed me on Twitter after I posted a video of the Renaissance party I did in 2022. It kind of went a little bit viral.

That’s so cool. How about the coolest person you follow?

The coolest person I follow is Beyonce. Okay, that’s a cop out for me. I would say a person I follow who is very very cool is Hunter Harris. She’s this writer who used to work at Vulture and now she has her own newsletter and a podcast, and I think she’s just so suave.

What is your favourite Nigerian podcast?

I’ll do a cop out here and say Q Convos only because I was on it and I will say I Said What I Said as well.

Have you ever hooked up with someone you met online? Did you regret it? 

Yes I have. Have I regretted it? Yes. There have been people who I’ve hooked up with and had regrets. But you know, after a while I kind of chuck it up to the game. 

5 people you’d love to see answer these questions 

Daniel Orubo, Ozzy Etomi, Uyai Ikpe-Etim, Toke and Collins Badewa

Read previous Obasanjo’s Internet entries here