Ah, senior year – the year when we stop seeing classmates and start seeing candidates for “Best Body,” “Most Spirited” and “Best Personality.” By the time this issue is published, the seniors will have chosen their picks for the sought-after Senior Superlative titles, and the way we will be remembered years after high school will be cemented forever.
At least, that’s how it used to be. In the days before the communication boom, upon graduation, people closed the door on high school and lost touch with most of their classmates. Close friends stayed in touch because they actually wanted to make the effort to do so. High school yearbooks served as a source of nostalgia and preserved the memories of former classmates.
Today’s advances in the World Wide Web have changed the entire nature of our interactions. Not only are we more connected to our current peers and friends, but through Facebook we are aware of all the intimately superficial details of the lives of past friends, former neighbors, and even teachers.
Though this has its many benefits – I can keep track of friends that have moved or gone to college – I often feel too connected to too many people. As I approach the end of my high school duration, I wonder about the future of Facebook and the way we will remember high school. Will I trim my list of “friends” to the select few I actually want to keep in touch with? Will I delete my Facebook account? Or will we go through the years accumulating more and more “friends” until we’re still getting status updates from that guy who sat behind us in math class?
The presence of Facebook implements a shift in the way we think about our past. When photo albums or yearbooks were our main connection to our past, high school was simply a memory. But if we’re flipping through the virtual photo albums of our high school crush in our 20s and 30s, high school will still be a reality. We might just find that “Best Looking” has a beer belly and “Best Personality” is the CEO of a company known for employee abuse.
Yes, it’s nice to stay in touch, but eventually we have to move on with our lives. Facebook eliminates any closure we get from graduating, so that we’re still competing to put up the most photos that show we’re having fun in college. High school reunions will become unnecessary, if not obsolete, because Facebook will eventually yield baby pictures and wedding announcements (Jane Smith: “Just got married!!!!! :D). If this continues, we will reach a point that we’re so plugged in we forget to live.
![Social studies teacher Timothy Rodman holds a production factory simulation in his AP Microeconomics class. "Students remember running for class president or the mock congress or the production factory much more so than learning topics like circular flow," Rodman said. "[The simulations make learning] very tangible and real and then students down the road are able to use it."](https://wjpitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/IMG_4420-1200x675.jpg)
