The Future of High School Reunions and Social Networking

In the coming years, high school and college reunions are going to be either zones of intense awkwardness or zones of engaging conversation and high-level networking.

Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have truly changed the scope of interconnection among alumni. It is very easy to keep in touch with good friends who live far from you, as well as reconnect with whom those you may have lost touch. These sites provide a forum not only for personalized relationships, but also a public listing where other friends and acquaintances may also join in the dialogue. In effect, these sites have proven to make the world even smaller, and take away some of the wondering about people from out past.

Reunions of the past have been intriguing to most alumni simply because people are interested to know what others have been up to. People are generally curious by nature, and finding out in just one weekend who got married, who has kids, who got divorced, who landed their dream job, who is still doing the same thing 5 years later, and which high school lovers got engaged is a convenient way to satisfy our hunger for knowledge. Similarly, there is a driving competitive force in all of us that draws us to these types of events; in a certain way we need to legitimize our own careers and choices, and seek to deconstruct the choices of others. While we may not have malicious intentions when we attend these events, under the surface there is a bubbling tension as information is withheld or espoused.

So, the question is, will this change in the face of the already gathered information from online social networking sites? Will we be more relaxed and less guarded about our career choices, our marriages, and our dreams lost? As I said, I think that the typical reunion will change, and it will change to either a weird environment or to a casual and friendly place.