Little fingers moving!: Into the mind of an 'APROKO'

Recent occurrences put me into a thinking mode and my main point of thought was about the levels of inquisitiveness present in every one of us. I realised we all have a certain level of 'aprokoness' within. For the ones we refer to as 'aproko', these are the persons that make it a point of duty to make other people's businesses theirs. It was amazing to realise that at certain periods we have the tendency to want to make a person's business our own business.

Several typical examples of such 'aprokoness' came to mind as I pondered. One of such is the case of 'aproko' on BBM. As most of us know, we have different categories of people on our BBM list; family, old school mates, colleagues from work, friends and acquaintances. I choose to categorically state 'friends' and 'acquaintances'; some people are just on our list because we might need to get information someday not necessarily to keep in touch constantly.

On this particular day, I decided I was going to appreciate one of my friends and I decided my medium of appreciation was going to be my display picture on my BBM. I went ahead to search for his pictures I had collected over time with each picture bringing back memories about a certain event. I decided I was not going to do a collage or use 'picmix' which could have merged all his pictures into one picture with several faces. Instead, I decided I was going to take the pains to keep changing pictures on my display picture. I knew why I chose to appreciate him and it was for a certain reason. Plan in place and I began my appreciation mission with the very first picture. I heard my phone buzz and I was thinking, 'someone loves me'. So what did this person buzz me for, 'Sisto, how are you nau? It has been a while.' I replied, 'I dey o. Indeed it has really been a while. How are you too and what have you been up to?' Before I finished typing my response, the person to my greatest surprise had already sent the next line of chat; 'So is this our bobo?'. I then sat and stared at my phone thinking of the best way to reply this person because in my mind I was already wondering, 'Did this person really want to check up on me or it is because of the picture I put up as my display picture?' While I was still thinking of what response to give this particular person, I decided to change my display picture with another one of his pictures. Before I could even get back to my trend of thought as to what response to give the person, my phone became a hot line. 'PING!!!' The same person goes, ' Sisto, answer me nau. I can see you have put another picture o *wink*'. While I was still processing and thinking 'Egbami o (Save me o)' pings come in from other people, 'PING!!!!' A ripple of laughter began to form from deep within me...lol. I had people buzzing that had not checked on me in months, wow! LOL...it was just too funny! I was blown away by what the change in display picture could achieve. LOL...I had chats such as

Someone said, 'Coughs!!! we see o'

Another said, 'We have to talk!'

Another said, 'When are we meeting Him?'

Another said, 'I am definitely calling you now!'

Another said, 'Babes, what have you been up to nau? Oya gist me because I can see update o'. I could go on and on and the most 'tripping' aspect was that some of these persons had not even buzzed me in weeks! To think that putting my friend's pictures as my display picture could cause such heavy traffic on my BBM...LOL. Some people even went as far as wanting to know how exactly the young man was related to me...LOL. People would not kill me with laughter o. Abeg! even if you want to know about something I put on my status and who I put as my display picture, there is a way to go about that business...LOL. Do not make it so obvious that you are on a mission as an 'aproko'. I know 'aprokoness' adds some spice to a person's day; we all do it one way or the other. I am guilty; I like gist but it would be nicer if we approach it in a nice way and please do show some level of concern for the person on your BBM list. Do not leave the person hanging after you are done with your 'aproko'. The conclusion of my pondering was, really 'what do people do with the information after they have got it?' These people, myself inclusive. Food for thought!