School Reunions? Nah, I've Got Facebook!

ScienceChic
Topic Author
Mountain Champion

15 May 2011 16:27 #1 by ScienceChic

School Reunions? Nah, I've Got Facebook! was created by ScienceChic

I could totally see this - and I'm not sure that their switching focus to "Unplugging for a Night" and seeing people in person is enough of a marketing device. Especially when, increasingly, people are moving farther from home after graduating so reunions mean a plane ticket out of state, not cheap compared to FB and Skype. Would you go back home for a reunion?

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/15/136209590 ... c=fb&cc=fp
School Reunions? Nah, I've Got Facebook
by Alex Schmidt
May 15, 2011

"Ten years ago, you would've gotten maybe 250 people at a 10-year reunion," says Joanna Erdos, vice president of the alumni association for L.A.'s John Marshall High School. "I recently attended a 10-year where there were 94 people. There was another one where I heard the attendance was 43."

Mark Silva, CEO of Great Unions, one of the nation's largest reunion planning companies, says attendance at 10-year reunions is declining across the country. More people are staying in touch, so Silva is changing his marketing pitch from "Find out what became of Sally" to "Unplug for a night."

"There are a lot of people who believe that Facebook is good enough, and they don't want to get together. Well, we try to educate them about, I guess you'd call it, real personal connections," Silva says. Reunion planners claim there's no substitute for that kind of face-to-face, grownup connection. Technology comes and goes, they point out, but reality stays.

"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill

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Rockdoc
Mountain Legend

15 May 2011 17:55 #2 by Rockdoc

Replied by Rockdoc on topic School Reunions? Nah, I've Got Facebook!

I think there are certain points in class reunions where attendance is more important to participants than others. The first reunion is novel and many are eager to participate if for no other reason to share what they have accomplished and to see one another in person. Another milestone would be later in life when death begins to thin the ranks say the 45th or 50th year class reunion. By that time we are into our 60's to 70's. Life becomes preciously sweet as does the camaraderie of those still alive. The only mitigating circumstance is fixed income. That at least is how I look at it. 2014 will mark the 50th for the class of 64. I think it would be fun to see some old class mates at least one more time, so I would try to go.

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Local_Historian
Mountain Legend

15 May 2011 21:15 #3 by Local_Historian

Replied by Local_Historian on topic School Reunions? Nah, I've Got Facebook!

I am home for any HS graduations - and I was in town at the time of my 20th- I didn't go.
Friend of mine did, said our class was very full of trophy spouses.

I see no need to go - anyone I want to be in contact with from those days, I already am in touch with. I cannot see spending a buttload of money for an event to be around people I didn't like back then, and who, for the most part, have not changed (at least they hadn't by the 10th).

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