10 hours Ago
A search for water bottles turned into an endless scroll-fest. The simple act of hydration has seemingly become an Olympic sport. I recall a time when drinking water was a simple affair - something you did when you were, you know, thirsty.
But, now it’s evolved into an elaborate ritual involving containers so enormous they could double up as emergency floats. Step onto any train, join any exercise class, or just walk down the street, and you’ll encounter water bottles resembling industrial-grade scuba tanks. The bottles have become fully-fledged status symbols, often emblazoned with motivational slogans such as 'Just Keep on Drinking!' and 'You’ve Got This!' as if the mere act of drinking water is an arduous personal journey.
Actually, lugging them around is pretty arduous. Some are so large that they require a separate carrier bag. Then there are those heavyweights that come with time markers, urging their enslaved owners to stay on schedule lest they dehydrate into a husk between breakfast and elevenses.
Shelley-Anne Salisbury has been told to stay hydrated (Image: 1000words.co.za) The average human can survive three days without water, yet we are encouraged to carry the equivalent of three days’ worth during a single morning’s commute.
What exactly are people preparing for? A trek up K2? And then there’s the actual drinking. Enormous, showy gulps taken as if they’ve just emerged from a 40-day fast in the wilderness. The irony, of course, is that we are not living in some arid, dystopian nightmare.
Well, not yet anyway. Last I heard, water is readily available in cafés, restaurants, gyms, and actual taps. Yet, the modern hydration enthusiast refuses to be separated from their personal reservoir, which surely can’t bode well for the future of our planet's resources.
Of course hydration is important, and I’m certainly not advocating a return to the carefree days when sunscreen and hydration were pretty much unheeded, but can we not simply trust ourselves to seek water in a metropolis when it’s required? I’m with Harrison Ford’s misanthropic character in the Netflix hit Shrinking who is visibly pained when his colleague constantly fills up her over-large, brightly coloured water bottle from the communal office water dispenser – because isn’t that what a water dispenser is for? To dispense water when you need it? Perhaps the next great wellness trend should be drinking water like a normal person. Revolutionary, I know..
