Now you've found me, get on with your life.

---

Numerous web sites have flourished around our desire to find that old high school buddy or sweetheart. It's an understandable desire, and I suppose that these sites provide a very commendable service. On the other hand, my guess is that for each person who has been delighted to find that long-lost old friend, there's another who would have preferred to stay lost.

Receiving an unexpected e-mail from a name from the past creates a surge of excitement, and it's pleasing to exchange one or two letters and find out what that person is now up to. But are we expected to keep this correspondence up indefinitely? Though numerous internet etiquette manuals have been written, I'm not familiar with a protocol for how long these renewed acquaintainces are supposed to be mantained, nor who is supposed to eventually end them. It couldn't hurt.

---

Go to: Confessions of a conservative technology freak.