Can't Do Without These

In today's world where humans crave ease and comfort, we use different things to reduce the burden on us. As of today, we have so Many gadgets, techs, products and/or services that take care of different things for us. Some of us have become dependent on a lot of these things, and I'm not better.

I was clearing my notification bar today when I read @King_Gozie article about things he can't live without. I thought I would answer for myself. So what are the five most important things I can't live without?

Smartphone

Before the adventure of smartphones, the use of phones was relatively on a needs basis. Few could afford the sophisticated phones of the time and I wasn't one of them. As a matter of fact, the first time I got a phone was around 2014. I was actually given that phone because I wanted to use it to run a call center. I have fond memories of that time in my life as that was my first attempt at making money for myself and I like to think I did quite well. But then came the advent and proliferation of smartphones.

This was largely due to the relatively low cost of smart phones running android operating system. I think the first smartphone I used was Tecno P2. Over the years, I have used several different brands and models and I've fairly grown dependent on my phone. This is because I use it for almost everything ranging from leisure, academics, communication to work and so on. My dependence on my phone has become even more since I started using read.cash but what can I say?

Data/Internet Connection

With all the innovation the android smartphones brought, I like to think it has one downside; data. I don't know how it is for you, but for me, without data, my smartphone is almost useless. Whenever I run out of data, I'm unable to really do anything on my phone. This is because almost everything on a smartphone requires some sort of data connection. Without data, the only thing you can do on your phone is to play games. It makes the smartphone look so ordinary. Data is the life of the smartphone. It's to the smartphone and its user what water is to man and what fuel is to cars.

Electricity/Power

I live in a country where power is a luxury for the middle class and the poor. The government has failed in providing adequate power for everyone and the little that's been generated is used by those who matter. In my area, it's a luxury to have power for more than ten hours a day. At some point, it was 12hrs a day and it was consistent, but that seem to have changed again. Even now we are supposed to have light, but we don't and my phone is almost dead, which is why I'm writing knowing this, cos it's easier and faster. It's a given why I can't do with this, cos I need it to power my phone, which I'm always using.

It also allows me to use the fan as the weather is really hot these days. But most of all, there's this aura of live ness that goes with power that I just love and can't do without for extended period of time.

Soup (Local Dish)

If you were to take me to the most high-end restaurant in Nigeria, you can bet your head on it, that the first thing I'll ask for is a local dish of soup and eba ( Eba is made from cassava flakes). My favorite food is one that has soup in/with it. I can go more than two days without it, cos if I do, I'll feel like I'm not eating well and I'll actually start shedding weight ( that I don't have🤣 ).So, yeah, this is very important. When people get richer, they begin to eat less of local dishes and more of continental dishes, but this soup, no matter how rich I become, they will still be my favorite set of food. Some examples of local soup here includes, Okro soup, Melon soup, Ogbono soup (Made from bush mango seed ) etc.

Animal Protein

This one is bad, I know, but I definitely can't do without it. Growing up, my father was a great fan of animal protein. He would always buy us things from work, and they were mostly of animal protein origin. These includes meat, pepper soup, suya (smoked stripes of meat), fried fish, fried meat, fried chicken etc. So, we grew up as such. In my case, it got so bad that I couldn't eat anything if there's no animal protein in it. I'm still that way even today. For a student who hardly has enough cash to cover school requirement, that's a dangerous habit to have, but I just can't help it.

What about you? What are the things you can't do without?

Thanks as always for reading this article