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
