The High School Reunion Will Never Die

"The high-school reunion is, as far as popular imagination tells it, dead-or, at the least, in extended hospice care. The New York Times declared it a vanishing institution in 2011; it was "deflated" and "old-fashioned," lost to the whims of a then-emerging social-media era that promised (or perhaps threatened) on-demand connection to anyone we used to know, particularly for those of us who were graduating high school amid the rise of Facebook."

"Today, a decade and a half on from that Times piece, the high-school reunion remains a bizarrely unkillable institution in American public life. The ritual floats on, coming around each summer like the willow warbler or the common cuckoo. Look to Reddit, the public square of our time, and you'll find dozens of recent discussion threads; on Facebook, reunion planning is scattered across an unwieldy network of high school "Class of" groups."

High-school reunions were declared obsolete in 2011 amid the rise of social media, yet reunions persist in American life. The ritual recurs annually and appears across Reddit threads and Facebook "Class of" groups. Reunion planning and attendance rose after the pandemic, with industry professionals reporting more excitement and a surge of fall events. A pair of former classmates hesitated about attending a forthcoming reunion despite attending their 10-year event. A planned 20th reunion was threatened when the class president abruptly withdrew shortly before the event.

Read at The Atlantic