THE POWER OF TREND : HOW WE MOVED FROM MARLIANS TO INDABOSKIANS.
By Martins Adedeji
Right from inception, media has being of great influence and its hits us like a bullet taking aim and shooting messages at a passive and impressionable audience who sees it ( media ) as all powerful and supremely effective. The media has gone a long way in affecting human behavior in such a way that ” the more exposure to it ( media ), the more the media’s reality become their reality -Cultivation theory. Media is now the powerful tool. The media is the new voice.The media can make one viral within a short time.The media brings reality.
POWER OF TREND. Now you begin to ask, in what way ? To start with, as a young child. I desired joy reading newspapers, magazines, journals, articles and write-up. That was where I got my early love for writing and speaking. Today, reading culture has reduced and the new winner is not hardcopy writers but soft copy.
Everything, anything can go viral through the help of social media. We know a lot of happenings around the world basically because it’s trending on Twitter, gaining likes on Facebook or views on Instagram.
This lockdown has made data sellers at advantages. Businesses are moving online, people who are less busy gets to see things online. Tiktok is wining now. I think I would learn that too. Is it not funny, how all of a sudden, you come online after a one minute break and something is trending.
Hashtags is the new headline. The media is here to stay. A simple illustration is; Tasha treneded for a really long time. I think months, she even had a group of followers called TItans. From a TV show participant (Big Brother Naija house mate), to a world star. Before, I saw it stupid to sit all day in front of a computer or a phone and being online twenty four hours of seven days tweeting, commenting, posting, writing, doing give aways or queueing to win give away.
Whammy, we have moved from knowing top writers to recognising top influencers. I hope to be an influencer someday sha but this is the real power of social media. I can’t fathom how that shit works. Maybe I should ask the likes of Pamilerin, Dipo Awojide, Ewawunmi, Volqx, Chemical brother, Mazi, and so on. Those guys are too much. I hope to be like them, and trust me, I will get there. They are not just Influencers, they are opinion leaders.
Back to the context of discussion, long time ago, we get expressions or perhaps sayings from the youths (male & female), children and even adult which was gotten from their opinion leaders. Then you hear sayings like mafo, marlians come forward; the rest fuck off, I’m a marlian, marlians no dey go school, NBG, Igbolabi and many more.You get to see that these opinion leaders who address themselves as MARLIANS have in one way or the other affected their followers because of what they bring to the media. Even a three years old child will tell you marlians no dey go school, you can imagine!!. On the other hand, the male youths go on about with trousers ( oversize) refusing to put on a belt because they see it as being normal . At least, that’s what their opinion leaders talk about and they go on addressing theirselves as such. No disrespect ooo, am a fan of Naira Marley. Before you guys will come for me. You will even see some having the same haircut with these people. Even companies started producing clothes with the MARLIANS slang inscribed on it and of course they made profit because those were the reigning slangs then.
Social media brand ambassadors create a niche, even if its looks stupid. People will pay attention to anything, pull your strings, make it trends. Artistes, companies rely on trends at times to sell. Let’s continue, it made others who couldn’t afford the dresses a NO MARLIAN. For Sure, the youths were going to strive hard to make sure they put on what was in Vogue. But as the world is revolving, the people in it tends to ponder on or to reflect repeatedly in it’s new dimension. Trends too gets crushed, its like a game, anybody can come from anywhere to beat you at it. Which brings us the man of the moment.
” I am the lion himself. I’m the fight, I’m the liquid metal. I’m the indaboski” Everyone cannot be preaching love”Haha, you’re laughing right, calm your nerves. Who is he that calls himself a lion? Who is he that says he’s the fight? Who is he that says he’s the liquid metal? Who is he that calls himself the virus? Who is he? He needs no introduction jare.
Odumeje, the lion is currently everywhere you turn. He has suddenly taken over whatsapp statuses this past days. There is hardly any post nit related to the Liquid metal himself. Since you are probably not going out much, this means he’s on your Twitter feed, Instagram feed, WhatsApp stories and even Tik Tok. But who is Odumeje, the lion? We might know his life’s story but we know he’s the guy making us laugh as the world seems to fall apart and we cannot help but stand. Now literally, everything this man says or does is gold and loud. Yeah loud. At this point, there is a Odumeje the lion meme or videos for everything. Now you see that through the social media platforms.
Influencing us a social media business ooo. Big time business. They should register as business firms. What do you think? Influencers got to have sharp, fast bullet on the impressionable audience. And soon, this audience begins to view Odumeje’s reality as theirs.
Not a conclusion but let me add this so I can get back online, It can be a decade or century from now but hopefully soon we will still address ourselves as something, as regards who we view as our influencers. It may add to our CV soon.
Apparently, we are no longer marlians, we are indaboskians. So who are we going to be next?
