subject: High School Reunions [print this page] No matter where you attended high school, it is a given that every decade some cheerleader will get the idea that the class should get together and relive those good old days. Somehow there is always a group who believes that the quality of their lives will somehow pale without high school reunions.
In theory, high school reunions are something to look forward to. It doesnt matter if high school was a decade or five ago. High school reunions give people a chance to find out what others have been doing. Participants can get reacquainted with old friends and maybe even make some new ones.
Fifty years ago education and work and social patterns were quite different. Often high school graduation was the end of the line for education. You got a job, married your high school sweetheart, coached little league with your high school football buddies and saw all your old high school friends at the Saturday night dances and church on Sunday. Annual high school reunion dinners or dances were the norm.
Times have changed. Grads go on to university or college, make new friends. They marry someone from a distant city, and change job locations several times. They are scattered all over the globe. It is neither feasible nor pressing to return for a high school reunion where you may remember few. One organizer of a poorly attended high school reunion suggested they make the next one a virtual affair.
Ironically, as people find less need to reconnect physically, the increased use of Internet and social networks like Facebook have sparked renewed interest in reconnecting with old high school friends. Just when a high school reunion committee could locate practically every graduate from their graduating high school class via e-mail and social networks, there is less interest in a physical meeting. Perhaps the ability to connect electronically removes any motivation for an actual reunion?
With the advent of widespread availability of computers, the Internet, email accounts and social networks, we have become a society of virtual contact. A young couple who got married last year in the Caribbean sent a live feed of their wedding to friends and family. If you were unavailable for the live feed, the wedding video could be viewed on YouTube. Wedding guests sent messages to the young couple via Facebook. The reception was very small!
Is there a message here for frustrated organizers of poorly attended actual reunions? Is it time to forego reunion dances and dinners and week-end campouts? Maybe that young couples wedding is the way of the future for high school reunions. One thing is for sure: the Internet and social networking have changed the way we connect and reconnect!
I am all for high school reunions going high tech! Graduates from all over the world could attend for an hour or two and reconnect with old friends. No one would be standing around looking for a polite way to leave.
