Old School Revival

There is a movement afoot on my trusty Facebook.com. Maybe by revealing that I have noticed a trend brewing signifies I spend far too much time on the site, but that, my friends (hah John McCain, I use this term of endearment only to mock you), is a risk I must take.

Here it is: My friends are increasingly putting up uber-embarrassing (and cute) pre-, elementary, and middle school photos. Which I think is fantastic.

For me, the fun started about a week or so ago when I sent Alana, Ciji, and Jenn (the BFFs) a pic of us from our 8th grade Medieval Faire. Alana put it up on Facebook and a bunch of people I am "friends" with (but don't talk to) commented on the photo. After all, it was an event we all attended over a decade ago. So, as a way to avoid any real work early last week, I scanned a batch of photos I dug up from a cardboard box under my bed and emailed them to the BFFs. Alana chose the ones that were least threatening to our social standings and put 'em up.

Since my life consists of writing and procrastinating (the latter seems to be winning lately), I have noticed many of my friends digging through their own collections of old pics and putting them up for all to see. Profile pictures, entire albums pay homage to our young selves. Instead of being horrified by our embarrassing Halloween costumes, gap-toothed smiles, and general awkwardness, we proudly display them like well-earned battle scars. We have grown up enough to no longer really be embarrassed by how we used to look, which I thought was never possible, especially when I was in middle school.

Perhaps my outlook is such because I am one of these brave souls. I must trust that my friends on the greatest procrastination tool ever created will look at my unflattering photos keeping in mind that, no, I do not have braces or really bad hair anymore. But maybe that's the fun part. This wave of putting up old pics (which, again, may not be a trend at all, but I'm just going to say it is for the sake of this post) connects our pasts to our presents, bridges the gap between all the people in our social networks. Now, our college friends can tease us not only about the time we totally spilled our drink on that cute guy we were dancing with but also our first-grade perm. (Please tell me I wasn't the only girl with a perm at seven.)

While there are some memories we might never want to share with our social networks (no one needs a reminder of how god awful I looked on my first day of high school), I love how this seemingly sudden spurt of old pics can connect us with those Facebook friends we haven't seen since we were twelve, or two, for that matter. The whole point of Facebook is to connect with these people and putting up old photos is a really neat way of reminiscing. I'm always up for a dose of nostalgia to break up the monotony of online procrastination. I mean, how many times can I check the Newsfeed or pop over to see what Perez posted about Britney in the last hour? (Apparently these activities can amuse me for hours if the other choice is writing my chapter summaries.)

Right now a new batch of middle school pics is sitting in Alana's inbox, waiting to be posted. The BFFs and I collaboratively chose these gems on Friday and, not gonna lie, the best part of my week may be the moment they're posted.

So, old friends beware, you just might be tagged next. :)