Reconnect with Friends and Family

As you grow older it feels like you begin to collect relationships like you would stamps or comic books. Without you realizing it, they start to pile up, until you have to start categorizing them like you would a library. There’s your family section, your high school friends section, your college years section, your coworkers section, your old boyfriend or girlfriend section, and so on and so on. If all these people were simultaneously in your life, calling you up to hang out, asking for advice, needing a hand moving, your head would most likely explode. Luckily, in most cases, you both move on from the relationship, and it becomes just a fond memory, like a book you enjoyed but wouldn’t read again. It collects dust and rarely given anymore attention than a passing moment. But what about the relationships you don’t want to let go?

I have a cousin that I always have an awesome time with. When I was a freshman in high school he got me drunk for the first time. We spent all night in the basement watching terrible made for TV movies and arguing who would make the next round. Over the years every time we’ve gotten together has been a blast. In the old days, how would I stay in touch with him? Randomly calling someone up after a couple of years couldn’t be more awkward. Sure, there’s the family gossip who knows the what’s going on with everyone always. Or there are the family reunions, but, at least for me, those are often exercises in avoiding family members rather than reconnecting with them. Not so long ago, maybe ten, fifteen years, ago the relationship would have stagnated and died and that would’ve been that. But with the invention of social media, it doesn’t have to. When he moved to my city, I start chatting him up. There was none of those horrible pauses that would’ve happened over the phone. We got time to feel things out, and once we were comfortable with each other again, we went out partying like the old days.

Sometimes you can reconnect with people who you barely remember. I’ve had friends from high school that didn’t afford anymore attention than friending them. When I saw that we were going to the same college, I went out of my way to seek them out. Since we were both in a new, strange place, we were happy to see someone familiar. Over time the people I wouldn’t give a passing thought about except when I looked over my contact list became my dearest friends. Later, when one of my friends moved a thousand miles away, we were still able to keep in touch without racking up outrageous phone bills. And since the video phone never materialised (in any non awful way) it as close as you can get to having a face to face conversation.

Whether it be technology advanced relatives, old friends, new friends, acquaintances, or anyone else in your life, social media has never made it easier to keep in touch with those who are important to you.