Friends forever
I’ve never been a fan of Facebook, but suddenly I’ve been reconnected to a whole bunch of old friends from high school, university, even summer camp, all thanks to Facebook. Some of these people I’d completely forgotten about, some I still can’t remember (!) and some I’d thought about every couple years and even googled, with no results.
This has created a really odd and somewhat unnerving phenomenon for me. People I considered a distant memory now tell me about their daily minutia. Friends from different parts of my life mix together in a schizophrenic cocktail party filled with small talk. Memories long forgotten are resurfacing.
To me this is interesting because it represents a generational turning point. My generation is reconnecting in a way previous generations never experienced. Long lost friends and acquaintances are reuniting from across the years and across the world.
Meanwhile, the current generation were ‘born connected’. They will always be connected, they can never lose touch. Is it a burden to carry around all that baggage? In different phases of my life I’ve had the chance to discover different aspects of my personality and form very different relationships. I wonder how that works when all the people you have ever known are observing and commenting on your every step?!
Posting your comment
Wayne | December 30, 2008 @ 8:13 am
What’s strange to me about this experience is the way you suddenly are in the minutia feed, but you haven’t necessarily ‘caught up’ and heard about the last 20 years of marriages, divorces and moving around the world.
I’ve been thinking of it as “drugstore details.” From facebook status/twitter I might know you are going to the drugstore today to get acid reflux pills, but I’m not necessarily aware that you live in New Zealand and are married to Hadley.