Did Facebook kill the class reunion?

[Robbi]

I don't need Facebook for a high school reunion. I have no desire to go to one anyways but my own family get togethers are HS reunions. . A not so nice "girl" I went to HS with married my just turned 25 year old nephew. We graduated 20 years ago this year!! So yes she is 38 yrs old! . Oh and can't forget her 17 year old son!! So yah she's not a great person. Can you say awkward!?
PS: I didn't get invited to the wedding because of my honesty about her not being a nice person.

She's not great person because she has a 17 yo son? My friend's sister married a guy in his 20s when she was 40 and they're still together 18 years later.
Some people become better as they get older. Of course, there are those who can never leave high school prejudices and backbiting behind when they graduate.

 

[Samandmom]

She's not great person because she has a 17 yo son? My friend's sister married a guy in his 20s when she was 40 and they're still together 18 years later.
Some people become better as they get older. Of course, there are those who can never leave high school prejudices and backbiting behind when they graduate.

Uhmm her herself makes her not a great person I didn't say her son did. But you don't know the full story so don't judge! I bet you would feel the same way if this was your immediate family not a sisters friend. The rest of the family feels the same way!

 

[Kathi OD]

My 40th (gulp) reunion is this October. It's only because of FB that I'm considering going. Didn't go to the 10th or 20th, and didn't know about the 30th (not that I would have gone anyway). Since FB, I've connected with a lot of people I graduated with, many I didn't care if I ever heard from again. You know what I've found out? With age, people change. Some of these people have grown up to be more like me than I could ever have imagined. Now if I can convince DH to go (yes, we graduated together)....

 

[Robbi]

I don't need Facebook for a high school reunion. I have no desire to go to one anyways but my own family get togethers are HS reunions. . A not so nice "girl" I went to HS with married my just turned 25 year old nephew. We graduated 20 years ago this year!! So yes she is 38 yrs old! . Oh and can't forget her 17 year old son!! So yah she's not a great person. Can you say awkward!?
PS: I didn't get invited to the wedding because of my honesty about her not being a nice person.

Uhmm her herself makes her not a great person I didn't say her son did. But you don't know the full story so don't judge! I bet you would feel the same way if this was your immediate family not a sisters friend. The rest of the family feels the same way!

This is the part that got me confused. Everything ran together.

 

[Disneyland1084]

I don't think FB "killed" reunions, but in my opinion, it's taken some of the excitement out of them.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Well, they're behind the times then. Media invaded FB to reach people now it's all Twitter because that's where the people are at.

Well good for the media. It's not an effective way to reach me or any of my friends (who are generally in the good wage earner categories). I don't know one single person who uses it. The kids are all moving to instagram and/or tumblr and so, probably, are their disposable incomes.

But if that's where the media thinks the money is, let them go there. . .less fluff for me to wade through.

 

[Hardy]

Facebook killed the class reunion for me bc it made me realize how little I wanted to spend time with these people. Several post rude political comments (that are also opposite my views), over share medical issues, sound like idiots, or play out personal drama through Facebook statuses. Friending them on Facebook was all the catching up I needed....now they are unfriended the few friends I kept in contact with, Facebook is enough to see how they are doing, and I enjoy that.

 

[MichelleinMaine]

Different situation here, but FB can be credited to increased reunions for my school. I graduated on a military base in Germany- it was not unreasonable to expect you would never see these people after graduation. Our senior class advisor told us the school had never had a class reunion. The yearbook editors collected everyone's parents SSN (?! this made sense in that time in the military) and a stateside family member's address in order to have any hopes of changing that. We did have a 10 year reunion, with a dozen of us. (Hey, that was 20%!)

But FB has opened things wide open to find classmates. Because so many kids went in/out of the school- there are people in "class of 1989" who never attended school together. (eg one went Frosh/Sophomore years and one Jr/Sr.) FB has opened it up for those friends to reconnect. We've had many regional reunions set up around the country (we have no "hometown" to return to) and now a big biannual reunion for all years on a cruise ship. I haven't attended, but many have. None of this would have ever been believable when we graduated 25 years ago!

 

[Maggie Lizer]

Well, for me personally FB killed any desire to go to a HS reunion. I keep in touch with the dozen or so people that I wanted to keep in touch with, and while it would be nice to see my friends and their families in person, they are so spread out across the country that no one would make the trip back "home" for a reunion, anyway.

 

[SaraJayne]

My 40th (gulp) reunion is this October. It's only because of FB that I'm considering going. Didn't go to the 10th or 20th, and didn't know about the 30th (not that I would have gone anyway). Since FB, I've connected with a lot of people I graduated with, many I didn't care if I ever heard from again. You know what I've found out? With age, people change. Some of these people have grown up to be more like me than I could ever have imagined. Now if I can convince DH to go (yes, we graduated together)....

I've also found out that with age, some people don't change.

 

[jodifla]

FB has spurred our HS class to get together on a regular basis...now there are often parties that get put together and posted on FB. Many of my huge class stayed in the same area of Florida.

We also have a sick classmate, and our class has done many fundraisers to help get her treatment overseas, all aided by Facebook.

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

I'm gonna jump right in with the issue. All of the plans for my 20th high school reunion have now come to a halt. Why? because most people (me included) do not see the point in paying to travel to see the same people you have already "caught up" with via Facebook. I mean i already know that you are married or single, have kids, and what promotion, new job or company you have started because YOU already told us via Facebook with pictures and the occaisional video too. And if you are not "my" Facebook friend chances are you are probably a friend of my friend or someone else's so should you ever come up in a conversation somebody will usually know somebody who may know you right? I mean the planning commitee used Facebook to spread the word. Lol! So, I ask you guys. Do you think Facebook has destroyed the class reunions for us? I do. Just wanted throw this out there. Have a magical day everyone. :0)

No....bc I wasn't going to mine regardless
My 10 year (well its really 11 but they were behind on the planning) is coming up and I am not going. What drives me nuts about FB is people who friend request me that didnt bother with me in HS. I guess to be nosey b/c I am private, and I should just ignore the request but then I feel like I am being rude to that person, in all reality I shouldn't care but with my luck I'll run into that person at some point in my life lol.

 

[tvguy]

really?? I'll be sure to tell my 3 kids aged 20-25 that. Their whole group of friends must really be behind the times. Hmmmm..maybe Columbus and OSU are just backwards. My kids do not have Twitter accounts and from what they tell me their friends don't either. I commented how I signed up for Twitter and they looked at me like I was nuts and basically told me that they just can't be bothered with it and it's stupid.


As for the OP...my highschool just had a huge all years reunion since it was the 50th anniversary of the school opening. Facebook helped spread the word and yes people came from all over. I still live local but couldn't go due to my daughter graduating college that weekend (out of town)..but people from my class flew in from other states and I loved catching up on all the pictures that were posted on our school's facebook page

Well I am on the West Coast, and trends do start here. Mine are 22-26, and what they say is backed up by the hits Twitter gets versus FB. Sort of like what happened when people moved from My Space to Facebook.

 

[tvguy]

Well good for the media. It's not an effective way to reach me or any of my friends (who are generally in the good wage earner categories). I don't know one single person who uses it. The kids are all moving to instagram and/or tumblr and so, probably, are their disposable incomes.

But if that's where the media thinks the money is, let them go there. . .less fluff for me to wade through.

It's all about eyeballs. And yes, Twitter will likely be dethroned by the likes of instagram or tumbler.

http://socialmediatoday.com/index.php?q=SMC/78505

 

[castleview]

It can go both ways. What kills my class reunions are the expense. The organizers insisted on open bar at each reunion which results in a expensive charge. DH's class tends to do okay though because they keep the ticket price low.

 

[tvguy]

I was amused when I saw this.

Theater adding tweeting section.:

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/27/5144480/providence-theater-experiments.html

 

[cybrkitn]

In DH's case, FB helped his class reconnect for their 20th reunion back in 2008. Now that everyone has pretty much "found" each other again, they keep in touch via FB. His class is now thinking of holding a 25th reunion. Although I don't know why. They just had one 5 years ago. I can see a 30, 40 or 50, but not a 10 and/or a 15.

As for me, I don't care about class reunions for my class at all (I was the one who was bullied from grade school up to my senior year). I also have no interest in FB. I often joke that DH knows more about what's going on with my aunts, uncles and cousins than I do. Sometimes it can be just TMI from them that I don't need to know.

 

[FergieTCat]

I have no interest in high school reunions, and have never been to one in over 30 years. I've kept in touch with one friend and at her insistence, accepted friend request from some of my fellow alumni on FB. They seem to have grown up to be perfectly nice adults, but I still don't think I'd spare the time or expense to go to a live reunion.

 

[kimmar067]

I'm gonna jump right in with the issue. All of the plans for my 20th high school reunion have now come to a halt. Why? because most people (me included) do not see the point in paying to travel to see the same people you have already "caught up" with via Facebook. I mean i already know that you are married or single, have kids, and what promotion, new job or company you have started because YOU already told us via Facebook with pictures and the occaisional video too. And if you are not "my" Facebook friend chances are you are probably a friend of my friend or someone else's so should you ever come up in a conversation somebody will usually know somebody who may know you right? I mean the planning commitee used Facebook to spread the word. Lol! So, I ask you guys. Do you think Facebook has destroyed the class reunions for us? I do. Just wanted throw this out there. Have a magical day everyone. :0)

....hmmmm, you're asking the wrong person, because, personally, I don't 'do' FB....