"What goes on tour goes on Facebook"

I consider the time I spend under water, in the pool in the mornings at 5h30am, probably the most philosophical moments of my routine day. As I was gliding from one side to the other this morning, I thought about the inquisitive nature of the human being. I recently came to the realization that certain people would actually go to arms length to scrutinize the lives of others to gather as much information as possible.  The motive for these actions differ vastly and with some I can easily live with. 

Example, if the police are investigating your every move they probably have a good reason and have a responsibility towards society to monitor you in order to manage potential risk. If my mother wants to know where I am, and if I arrived home safely it is because she cares and are concerned about my well being. 

On the other hand if my colleagues at work knows who I see for lunch, where I hang out over weekends, who I see in my spare time without me sharing any of that information, I start to get slightly worried. I never imagined that buying a convertible would be like adding rocket fuel to a Sunday afternoon braai the way the gossip flared up when I drove the new two-seater into the basement. 

I always considered a gym as a place of exercise and maybe a bit of socialization, ….not anymore. People whom you don’t know become your facebook friends in order to get a heads up on a bet to find out as much as they can. If a total stranger asks you in the sauna how your infected eye is holding up these days, I want to call Mr Bolhuis for protection. How did he know that and what value does the information have for him? If three people follow you to your car I consider buying a gun…ok maybe just pepper spray guns are a bit extreme. 

Then there are the people you would like to show interest in your life but just doesn’t give a hoot, those are usually the nice ones I came to realize but I think that’s a topic for a Sunday afternoon. Then you get individuals pretending not to be interested and then spying on you behind fake internet identities. These are the ones slightly messing with my brain. 

I saw a T-shirt saying: “:What goes on tour goes on Facebook”…very true! 

To set the record straight on a couple of things which might save some people some effort: I do not take money underneath the table from suppliers, I just don’t have children, timeshare or a drug habit to fund therefore can afford a Z4. If I didn’t tell you in person I am buying a new car it’s not a personal vendetta. If I spend a lot of time with someone it doesn’t necessarily mean I have relations with that person. 

And then I got out of the pool. . .