RSS Feeds Feeds: Articles | Issues
Articles About TAP Subscribe Donate
TAPPED  |  Beat the Press

Remember Me
Forgot your password?

The symbol identifies content for paid subscribers only.


 



The group blog of The American Prospect

FACEBOOK: REUNION KILLER.

On Facebook, I can gawk at photos of my kindergarten best friend's adorable twin kids and my high school fling's current girlfriend. I learned that the girl who lived up the block is now an investment banker, and a few old friends are marrying this summer. So the question Adam Kushner poses at Newsweek is apt: Now that we can track a lifetime worth of acquaintances online, why should we attend costly college and high school reunions?

Historically, reunions have used voyeurism as a lure. Who lives where, who got hitched, who got fat—you had to show up to find out. But now the answers are all online. "Facebook has turned the idea of college reunions from an expensive necessity to just expensive," says Kevin Pang, who skipped his five-year reunion at the University of Southern California last week.

That's bad news for colleges: reunions are the most reliable fund-raising tool in their arsenal. ...

So far, college administrators report no such decline. But they have reason to be nervous. Anyone attending a five-year reunion in 2008 was part of the last class for which Facebook was not an integral part of campus life; it began catching on in mid-2003.

--Dana Goldstein



COMMENTS

In my experience, just the opposite.

A rollicking Facebook back-and-forth with several grade school classmates sent me into such paroxysms of nostalgia that I went to considerable expense and inconvenience to attend reunion.

Am I not young enough to understand a world where virtual encounters of one kind or another seem to be an acceptable substitute to actually seeing people?

Well, I got lucky at my high school reunion. Can't do that on facebook.

I'll second Bart; I got back from my fifth college reunion yesterday, where there was record attendance and plenty of very facebook-happy people. There may be good reasons to suspect we might not have been normal, but this anecdote is directly opposed to Mr. Kushner.

I have twitter http://www.frogmix.com/search/twitter , myspace and now facebook. Once I signed up for facebook I realized that this is too much social networking. I really don't even care

Post a comment


Search TAPPED for:

Archives

About TAPPED

TAPPED, the Prospect's award-winning group blog, is a link-intensive collection of musings, ramblings, opinions and other assorted writing on the political developments of the day. See a list of our contributors.

| RSS | Twitter


Renew your print subscription or e-subscription.
Get an e-subscription for $14.95.
Give the gift of political insight. Send The American Prospect to a friend.
Change your email address or street address.
YES! I want to receive The American Prospect
— the essential source for progressive ideas.
Explore The American Prospect's award-winning investigative journalism and provocative essays in a free trial issue. Continue receiving The American Prospect at only $19.95 for a one-year subscription - a savings of 60% off the newsstand price!
First Name
Last Name
Address 1
Address 2
City
State
ZIP     
Email

Should you decide not to continue receiving the magazine after the initial free issue, simply write "cancel" on the invoice and you will not be billed.

© 2010 by The American Prospect, Inc.  |  Privacy Policy  |  Permissions and Reprints