Even before I graduated high school or college I had visions of a glorious return to my old sanctuaries, at my reunions. I think everybody, on some level, dreams of returning to their former stomping grounds with tales of adventure and stories from the land of milk and honey. Maybe its a little egocentric but I think we all have the urge to toot our own horns at times. There’s also the exciting element of getting to catch up with the people you once thought you couldn’t live without. Everyone gets to swap pictures, tell tales and get caught up on the past. The only problem now, in today’s world, is already have access to all of that information on Facebook and MySpace.
What is there to look forward to and why in God’s name would I spend all the money to fly to my hometown to hear my old friends vocalize what I just got done reading a week ago online. It almost disgusts me how much I know about people now. Even people I never got to know, high school and college alike, have popped up in my life and gotten to know me better than some of the people I’ve bonded with. Of course it’s great that the “social networking” sites have allowed everyone to meet so many new people but at the same time it has taken away so much of the mystery of life.
Is that girl single? Just the internet. Don’t have the courage to ignite the conversation in person? Meet them online. Don’t have the money to visit your old friends? Video chat online. At times if you sit back and think about it maybe we’re not better off with all the new technologies. Maybe somewhere along the line we forgot what it meant to be human. So many people, at times even me included, have locked ourselves away on our computer for so long that we forgot where we were sitting in the first place.
Do I want to lose touch with all the people I’ve met in the past? Of course not. I love that no matter how many times I move and however many new alliances I form, I can keep everyone at my side. If you needed any more of a justification for the digital society we’re created – I’m sorry, there isn’t one better. We have all fallen in love too many times and bonded with too many friends to keep up with past flames and allies without these glorious sites. Are we starting to venture a bit into the dark side? Perhaps – but if you have to take the good with the bad – I think we’re doing alright.
So when 2015 rolls around and I’m invited to my first round of reunions [hopefully at Alvirne where I spent most of my high school years] I hope I have the desire to go. I hope there is a little more mystery in the air. Of course by then it’ll have been so long since I’ve look my old peers face-to-face that I can hardly imagine resisting the chance to relive the days that have passed. I just pray that the internet and whatever technologies come next don’t ruin that anymore than they have. I love meeting new people, and the ones I’ve met through internet sources have often turned into great friends and even more so with the old friends it’s helped me reconnect with. I don’t hate it, I don’t want it to disappear, I just want to know a little bit less about everyone so maybe we’ll send less Facebook chats, emails, texts, and twitter messages. Maybe, and only maybe, we’ll start using our voices just a little bit more.
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