Mark and I had been coworkers in the same department for over a year. We’d sit at the same tables during lunch, and once or twice, we went with other office workers for happy hour beers.

But we remained acquaintances. The sort you’d see on the street or hallway and nod to or wave at, but not the type you’d stop to talk with...

I’m not even sure who added who, but once we became friends on Facebook, I started learning way more about him.

I guess our algorithms overlapped...

Soon enough my feed was featuring his daily posts, and I learned his favorite food was pepperoni pizza. Then I discovered his favorite band was Arcade Fire.

Then I found out his taste in film. His penchant for 1980s flicks. And I’d initially chuckled as he declared, unironically, too, it appeared, that Police Academy was a cinematic masterpiece.

But upon further thought, I silently concurred.

Then, as time went on, I got to see Mark’s different moods on different days and was impressed by his ability to not let trivial annoyances like the broken copier or slow Wi-Fi affect him. How he’d use humor, funny memes to counteract office chaos...

Am I a voyeur? Perhaps I am. But not intentionally. I’d never set out to follow him or wondered what he was doing or checked his page.

It was just ... day after day ... his posts kept magically popping up in my feed, and, for whatever reason, I kept reading them.

Perhaps it was due to his posts’ refreshing banality. Or his easygoing, Midwestern manner. He never once posted obnoxious stuff. He never ranted in ALL CAPS about Trump. He wasn’t spamming or selling anything. And he was only posting once, perhaps twice a day.

So I kept passively reading. Even after he left the company.

Normally I never bother to block or delete anyone without reason, like spam or too much finger-pointing politics, but sometimes I’ll notice former coworkers delete me.

One former coworker had said that he prefers keeping his social media friends circle small, only people he has regular contact with, and when we lost touch after he left the firm, then subsequently deleted me, I understood.

But Mark never deleted me, and almost as if I were a regular, semi-interested watcher of a reality TV show, I kept seeing these random snapshots of his life.

Sometimes I’d see his posts daily. Sometimes once or twice a week. And I went on seeing them ... For the next five years...

I saw him marry his girlfriend. Saw his new car. His new house. His new job. Then his next new job.