Sense and Sensibility ( Just Change The Channel!)

Okay…

So here I was watching a music video on television. Of course, it was the usual booty-shaking, hips-gyrating, women objectifying concept used in the video.While watching, I let out this really long, malicious hiss and went into a lengthy diatribe about how every Tom,Dick,Bisi,Joan want to sing in Nigeria and how watching these videos have destroyed the brain cells of our Nigerian youths. I was really in my element as I criticized everything from the video quality to the hairstyle of the musician. Funny enough,I kept watching the video even while I was ranting. As I kept going on and feeling like some sort of movie critic, a small voice whispered from inside “why don’t you just change the channel? its simply sense and sensibility…”

So i googled ‘sense’ and ‘sensibility’ and here is what I got. Sense: Any of the faculties by which stimuli from inside or outside the body are received and felt such as the faculties of hearing,sight,smell,touch,taste and equilibrium(dictionary.reference.com). Sensibility on the other hand refers to an acute perception, responsiveness towards something usually an information received by the senses(Wikipedia.org).

While mulling over this definitions, I came to a weird but seemingly true conclusion that negative information is very entertaining. In fact, It is a well known fact/cliche that bad news sell quickly. Humans have a weird penchant for negative information. The issue however is that after the initial entertainment is over,one is left with a negative feeling like some sort of bitter aftertaste. The feelings may come in different forms such as revulsion,worry,anger or sadness etc; it may even take a while to accumulate but those feelings will surely come. This is why,though it was quite entertaining to watch, that music video left me feeling angry,disgusted and sad. Watching several beautiful women objectified by a teenage musician never produces a good feeling. This information however  gave me a sense of power as I now knew that I could control my feelings by choosing the information I receive with my senses.

It is true that you are what you think. Even the bible says that. The information which you receive with your senses make up your thoughts which then spurs you to take action which will determine your course in life. So,we have the power and responsibility to choose the information to receive with our senses. For example, as a young graduate, I have a choice to either listen to people who have been successful in their various careers and businesses and learn from their success stories or I can listen to the general populace whine about how there are no jobs in Nigeria. As a single lady, I also have a choice to either listen to people who have had successful marriages or I can join in the “All Men Are Dogs” chant. The choice is up to me.

Frankly,negative information is quite entertaining and is always readily available. Sometimes it seems like one cannot run away from it.I mean,you don’t have to search far. Just go online or turn on the television and you are bombarded with all sorts. But in order to be the best we can be, getting the right information is essential. Yes, we may have to go out of your way to get  the right resources but it will always be worth it. It just takes a little discipline to stay off the wrong stuff but nothing good ever comes easy.

“Remember that while it may be easier to be like the crowd,it is far more rewarding to be your own person” -Orji Uchechukwu,2015. (lol…feeling like one orator sha.).