Do you remember life before the internet?
Of course I do!
I live in a typical African village, and watching it evolve over the years has been nothing short of epic.
I still remember when the entire village shared a single phone. If someone received a call, word would travel fast, literally. Someone would run across homesteads to deliver the message: “Your call is waiting.”
But what I miss most is not the technology or lack of it. It is the intentionality in our interactions. Most evenings, our parents would stroll to the neighbors’ compound, sit under a tree, and catch up on the latest village gossip. We kids? We’d gather and dive into games like “kati”, hide and seek, and “kalongo” until the moon told us it was time to go home.
Those were the kind of moments that filled our hearts, unfiltered and real.
Then came the shift.
First, more phones. Then, one in every home. Then Facebook. Twitter (now X). WhatsApp. Instagram. And just like that, our quiet little world turned into a global village.
Suddenly, life outside became quieter. Not because people were not around, but because they were inside, eyes glued to glowing screens. Connection became easier, yes, but not always deeper.
Sometimes, I say… half-joking but wholly honest, that I would have thrived in a world without the internet. A world where messages were passed with smoke signals, drumbeats, or a neighbor’s knock at the door.
Of course, I appreciate the digital age and all it offers. But part of me still longs for the soul of a slower life, where presence was not a status, it was a way of being.
Shadow to my light. 