Thoughtful considerations by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang.

Excerpt:

“It strikes me that barring some serious legal or technological reversal, mine may be the last generation that has the experience of losing touch with friends. I suspect that my kids and their friends will grow up with Facebook (or whatever’s hot ten years from now); and not only will they always be able to get in touch with their friends from seventh grade, the chances are good that they’ll be able to see what those friends are doing. Of course, some friends will mean or or less to them over time– the central nodes in that network of friends will constantly shift– but just disappearing entirely may become a lot harder.

This could often be a good thing– think of all the people whose lives start to drift when they lose touch with friends, or the degree to which becoming anti-social is a predictor of things like depression– but it could have its down side as well. I think it was necessary for me to separate myself from my high school world in order to become someone different, and I’m not sure that I’d have been able to reinvent myself so thoroughly if the whole class of ’82 could comment on what I was up to. Reinventing yourself– or just following a passion that you have, and pushing that interest as far as you can– isn’t normally something you do by yourself, or out in the desert; more often it’s something that you do in the company of other people, and very often something you do with new people.

Maybe my children’s generation will need the ability to turn parts of their network dark when they embark on some new adventure, then re-light them later. As a technical feat, this shouldn’t be tough; as a social one, it might be harder. You could always disguise not being in touch with old friends as a function of time and work pressure and so forth, but switching off a set of friends would be a more explicit declaration that you’re taking a break from them. Still, when it comes to shaping identity, the ability to forget can be as important as the ability to remember. It’s easy to implore people not to forget who they are; but sometimes, in order to become someone better, you need to forget a little bit.”