Oh, really?
You got married and had three kids? Nice.
You got rich and bought a car worth more than my parent's house? Sweet.
You hiked Everest and basically became a super hero? Righteous.
I was invited to my class reunion last week via Facebook group and within five seconds of newsfeed-scrolling, I decided I don't really need to go. Sure, seeing my old friends might be pretty cool, and seeing how far I've come in reference to the people I grew up with might be ego-boosting, but lets really think about that.
Now that our fingertips are wired directly to Facebook, there isn't anything that I would learn seeing them face-to-face that I wouldn't have already learned by looking through their timeline. I would even save the heartache of going to the town that I so happily escaped years ago, and experiencing exactly what made me so happy to leave. What would it help if I showed up in person and regurgitate what I have posted on Facebook for the past years? Just look at my timeline if you care, I doubt you do.
This made me start thinking, am I being un-social? Or is this just the time we live in? That a social network is now making me feel less inclined to socially interact with my old group of friends, to catch up and see how things are going after all of these years.
One of my friends actually hit the nail on the head when he posted, "But guys, I'm not rich and famous yet!" -- case in point. The "class reunion" is actually just an opportunity to gauge how far we've come in comparison to our old classmates. Who beat the expectations? Who flopped under pressure? Whose goals were achieved and whose went straight down the toilet? The class reunion is actually just a sad, guilt-driven interaction between old acquaintances who probably talked shit behind each other's backs and really had nothing in common.
Why do we need this when we have Facebook? We already post all of our accomplishments and all of our failures (even though we shouldn't) to this over-bloated network, and for all of the two-faced behind the back talk there are always private messages.
So next time you are invited to your class reunion, log on to Facebook, scroll through your old class-mates timelines and really think, "Do I want to put myself through this? Do I really want to see these people? Is there a better use of my time?" There probably is. Save yourself the guilt, the awkwardness, the annoyance, and reach out to the few people you actually want to talk to -- on Facebook -- and leave the rest be.
Facebook killed the class reunion. Facebook even killed Facebook, for me.
I might still go though... What the hell, right?
Could be fun.