Social Media and its impact upon Reunions

If you take time to look around, you will see that Social Media is being discussed and/or utilized almost every place you look. So as I was thinking about all of this the other day, I began to wonder what impact Social Media will have on high school or college reunions in the coming years.

It is my thinking that the past objective and main reason for wanting to attend such reunions has been to — “catch up” with old classmates and friends and to rekindle old relationships.

Would you also agree that many people are interested to learn what their old classmates are up to, what is going on in their lives, where they work, where they live, about their family etc? Most people, are interested to hear a quick broad brush of what “so and so” is doing these days… even if it is from afar.

I think such information is in part why “high school and college reunions” have been such a big deal in the past. Isn’t it true that many people attend simply so that they can “re-connect” with old friends that they have lost touch with, while others go to “brag and show off” about how much s/he has accomplished etc? I would think this is true for some people.

With that said, things have changed. With the advent of the all powerful Google search engine, and Social Media tools like Face Book, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, YouTube and much more… you can find whatever information you desire to find about almost any classmate. With a few key strokes and some deliberate searching… you can “more or less” learn uncover what most classmates have been up to, what they are involved with, where they spend their time etc.

So, the question of the day is– does the advent of so much readily available information before a reunion– effect the objective, feel, and intent of such reunions?

Does the fact you can, if you so desire, obtain most of the information, about an old friend or classmate, BEFORE a reunion help or hurt reunions. Will it affect the way reunions might FEEL in the coming months and years? Do you think Social Media is going to help such reunions gain attendance or lose attendance? Will Social Media change the way people feel when arrive at a reunion “in real life” such as making a person more comfortable because they have “kept up” with someone online?

What do you think? Other Thoughts?

Ryan Sauers www.sauersblog.com