Sniff the Pages..... in a Scrolling World

The first time I realised I might not actually know anything, I was lying on my bed, phone in hand, scrolling like my life depended on it. It was one of those Abuja evenings where NEPA had decided to humble everyone, so my room was hot, quiet, and lit only by my screen. I had just watched three videos back-to-back about African politics. By the end of it, I felt powerful. Educated. Like if someone called my name in class, I could stand up and speak like one intellectual babe. So I tested myself. I dropped my phone. And I tried to explain what I had just learned. Silence. My brain said, “Loading…” Nothing loaded. That was when it hit me. I didn’t actually understand anything. I had just watched it. A few days later, I picked up a book I had abandoned. Not because I suddenly became serious, but because data had finished and boredom was knocking like an uninvited guest. I opened it slowly. You know that moment when the pages make that soft sound and the smell rises up? That smell? I inhaled it like it was therapy. Don’t judge me. At first, it was hard. No background music. No fast cuts. No comments section telling me what to think. Just words. Full paragraphs. Stress. But as I kept reading, something strange happened. My mind slowed down. I started asking questions. I started connecting ideas. I started arguing with the author in my head like, “Wait, that doesn’t even make sense,” and then reading further and thinking, “Okay… maybe it does.” For the first time in a while, I wasn’t just consuming information. I was engaging with it. Social media never gave me that. Don’t get me wrong, social media is that girl. It’s fast, loud, everywhere. It tells you what’s happening before it even fully happens. It can make someone unknown become a global voice overnight. It shapes opinions in seconds. One viral post and boom, the whole world is thinking the same thing. But that’s also the problem. It doesn’t give you time to think. It tells you what to feel before you even understand what you’re seeing. Books don’t do that. Books are patient. Almost stubborn. They make you sit down. Focus. Think. They don’t care if you’re tired or distracted. If you want what they have, you have to meet them halfway. And what they give you in return is something social media cannot. Depth. Structure. Understanding that actually stays with you even after you close the page. So which truly drives knowledge and influence in today’s world? If we’re being honest, social media drives influence. No competition. It decides what trends, what matters, and what people talk about. But knowledge? Knowledge lives in books. Because knowing something is not the same as understanding it. And I learned that the hard way, in a dark room, with a dead data bundle and a brain full of empty information. Now? I still scroll. I still laugh at random videos at 2am like a normal human being. But every now and then, I reach for a book. I open it, breathe it in, and remind myself that real knowledge is not something you rush. It’s something you sit with.

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