30 Oct 2009, Posted by Peter in Lifestyle, Social Media, 2 Comments

My Highschool Reunion’s Voilent Death by Social Media

No, it’s not the upcoming album of a local emo band. It’s my painful realisation that the web has eventually managed to snatch life’s little pleasures from me. See, for the past few months, old school friends have been sending out messages about a five year high school reunion ‘hangout’ at a casual venue. Responses showed that many graduates felt that a five year reunion is a terrible idea, period. I, on the other hand, thought it would be rewarding to see what everybody has been up to over the past five years (I was also interested to see if anyone got married or became parents, to be completely honest).

Then it hit me. It would not be rewarding to see what everybody has been up to over the past five years. Why? Because I know exactly what everybody has been up to over the past five years.

I only joined Facebook in my third year out of school, and before that I spent some time on what is today referred to (in some circles) as the Ghetto of the Internet, Myspace. However between these two networks I have come to know more about my ex classmates, than in many cases, I was interested to know.
Now, thanks to social media, Margarete will not have to tell me how she eventually started dating women, Sam won’t be able to woo me with his new business success story and poor Candice won’t be able to avoid the topic of her posing half naked in pictures taken by her boyfriend, as an attempt to become a calendar girl for a local men’s magazine.

The element of surprise is gone, and it took any form of excitement with it. What could have been a vibrant evening of catching up with old friends, will probably now become a group of people, glued to their mobiles, possibly tweeting about this very issue I am writing about.

I could not make the reunion, for personal reasons. Maybe that is why I am so melodramatic and outspoken. But still I can’t help to feel that I would not really have learned anything new about anyone.
Luckily that can’t take away the simple pleasure of seeing ‘old’ faces in real life, which is a good enough reason for me to make it to the 10 year…

Let’s hope no one develops the High school reunion iPhone App before then.