“Look at this picture Alexi! It’s Bobby, a boy I knew from the fourth grade! Wow he’s changed so much.”

My mom has said things like this to me countless times when she finds her old classmates on Facebook. She has not seen some of these people for 30 years, so seeing how they changed must be bizarre. Imagine not seeing your friend or even acquaintance for years and years, and finally finding pictures of them and their grown family. Facebook is an awesome tool for our parents’ and grandparents’ generations, however for our generation, it is eliminating the shock value of school reunions.

As a young child, I found my parents’ stories about their reunions where they would chat with classmates after not seeing them for decades enticing. Now I realize that I may not have the opportunity. Our generation may not have this opportunity.

Facebook and other social networking sites have done wonders aiding users in sharing their memories and helping to connect old friends. But what if I’m already “friends” with my old friends? When I reach that age and to try to recall Jamie from the third grade, it will be as simple as a click.

Because of this, high school and college reunions won’t be nearly as meaningful as in the past. People that we wouldn’t have seen for 10 years will be seen everyday—on our newsfeeds.

In the college years and beyond, seeing updates from old friends or classmates could be exciting. But in the long run, the vibe of high school reunions will be taken away. With the new technology, our generation is gaining knowledge, but we are losing the authenticity of the generations’ prior to us. Personally, when I go to my high school reunion, I want to experience the same feeling that my parents’ and grandparents ‘experience. My grandma, who is not a Facebook user, recently went to her 60-year high school reunion. She told me she could see her classmates’ childhood faces within their grown faces. She said she could see the little boy she remembered from kindergarten in an elderly man’s face. Seeing a boy at the age of 18 and then not again until the age of 78 is definitely a transformation that I’d like to experience.

Although it may be difficult, and yes it sounds rude, I strongly encourage “deleting” your high school “friends” as soon as you walk across the stage holding your high school diploma.

As a senior, I know that when I’m 60 years old, I want to walk into my high school reunion and be amazed. I want to run into old friends at the grocery store and reminisce. I do not want to know what they look like or what they did this weekend from the ever-growing Internet.