I know what you did last summer. And last year. And last night.
Online networks have rendered reunions obsolete
By Meredith Goldstein, Globe Staff | November 29, 2008
When landscape architect Rachel Kisker went to her 10-year high school reunion in 1998, she got a few good surprises. Sure, she had kept in touch with her close friends over the years, but back then she was in the dark about what most of her Scituate High School classmates had been doing during the decade since graduation. Now Kisker is preparing for her 20th reunion. This time, she knows just about everything about everybody. Thanks to the Internet, she knows where people live. She knows where they work. She knows what their spouses and children look like. She knows, in some cases, how they've spent their afternoons.
On Facebook, former classmates who haven't been in touch with Kisker since the last reunion update their profiles to tell the world they're reading to their kids, gardening, or doing mundane grocery shopping. "Some people put up very extensive explanations of their jobs, where they live, what their interests are," said Kisker, 38.
At her reunion tonight, there will be little need for the Scituate group to show off family photos and exchange business cards. The information is already out there, and it's already been swapped via e-mail. In fact, not only does Scituate's class of 1988 have a Facebook page, but it also has a public Evite, where people have left personal comments, as well as a reunion website where people have logged in requests for the DJ. ("Bizarre Love Triangle" and "Whip It" are on the list.)
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