"Jezuz Doc!"

It seems to be happening to everyone.

You come home from work (actually you're probably doing it at work). You log on to Facebook and find one of those nice little friend requests. Who could it be?

"Holy shit!"

It's the ol' blast from the past. That's where you experience the phenomenon of having known someone very well and then drifted. Lots of time and space have come between you two. Then you reconnect.

Whammo! Here it comes!

You either think of how you remember this person or are slammed with something you've long forgotten. It might even be the person themselves you've forgotten. But you're back in touch now and you have Facebook to thank for it.



That's just the beginning. Wait till you start to check in w/ some of these folks you might as well have known in a former life. Each of you has specific memories of each other. Sharing those memories and how we viewed them when they occurred and and how we feel about them now is really cool, but definitely not new. What is new is how often it's happening to people like me - and there are apparently a lot of us.

A recent MediaPost.com story cites more than 250 million Facebook user accounts. What are the chances this phenomenon will not only increasingly occur, but change how we interact with people we know or knew over our lifespans?

Here's my take. The reconnect phenomenon will happen on a regularly common basis over the next few years. Then it will peak and increasingly become less common. There will be fewer people we knew and more we know. I'm not sure beyond that, but I'm intrigued to see it develop over time. That means far fewer people will be wondering, "whatever happened to (insert disconnected person here)?"

The internet can easily be tagged the most prolific invention of our generation. I truly believe that is in no small way part of the Facebook Effect.