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 doesn’t 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.
Back in our parents’ day it was the norm for high school graduation to be the end of their education. They often lived their whole lives in that town. They saw their high school friends at soccer matches, church and the Saturday night dance at the Elks’ club. Yet, high school reunions were an annual social event.
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.
The rapid rise of social networks such as Facebook has rejuvenated interest in-and a vehicle for-finding old friends from high school. It is now possible to locate just about every graduate from high school days through e-mail and social networking. This makes getting the word out much easier. But does this mean attendance at an actual reunion will be higher?
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!
Maybe it is time we forget the high school reunion dinners and dances and picnic and week-end campouts. Perhaps it’s time we take a page from the newlyweds and realize that the Internet and social networking have changed the way we reconnect?
Perhaps it’s time high school reunions went high tech? It would be a lot easier for graduates from all over the world to take an hour to connect with old friends than to travel for a day to get to some function where everyone stands around and sizes up the rest of the graduating class wondering how soon they can politely escape.
To learn more about high school reunions, visit http://www.classmates.com/registration/services/reunion/planner
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento