This spring's graduating class will be part of America's first generation to be forever connected. The story of America is largely one of individual and family migration, and the end of the school experience often was the end of relationships for many as they moved away for jobs and new lives.
Today's young people are different from their elders in many ways, and one big difference is how they connect. Most interpersonal communications among today's youth are no longer face-to-face encounters, but rather mediated through technology -- instant messaging, SMS text messaging, and that old teenage favorite, the telephone. Often it's through all of them simultaneously. And, significantly, these technologies now are generally flat-rate services, insensitive to distance.
Move away? What's "away" mean these days?
The Web's new public and personal spaces help re-establish dropped connections. Myspace.com, for example, makes it easy for high-school friends to link back up through its social networking (friends lists) and search features.
This connectivity has implications for the concept of "local," which is the one remaining strength in a local newspaper's franchise.
We should keep in mind that this is a human phenomenon, not a technology phenomenon. The connectivity that's been established by the Internet will have wide-reaching social implications. Some 15,000 Los Angeles high school students took to the streets Monday to protest anti-immigrant legislation. Conversations on Myspace.com are being credited with helping spread the word.