More and more people are visiting UK sites such as Friends Reunited and Irish sites such as Classmates.ie. But what is it that makes us want to rekindle old classroom friendships and reawaken long-ago memories of our schooldays?
In cyberspace, where a multitude of school reunion databases exist, thousands of long-lost school friends are revisiting their formative school years and fulfilling their insatiable appetite for news regarding their old classmates.
Leaving Certificate and final year college students are signing up en masse to reunion websites before departure, while thousands of others who have been out of touch with old friends are going online to begin the classmate search. Posting "memory of the day" messages, exchanging old school photos and organising school reunion functions are common activities on the sites.
One online website, Classmates.ie, boasts 63,083 members from 6,485 colleges and schools in Ireland. The majority of members are based in Ireland, but, in a reflection of the emigration paths of Irish people, a large number of people go online from the US and UK.
In terms of the global overview, Classmates's membership spans over 148 countries worldwide and the age profile ranges from late teens to the over-80s, effectively spanning the generations.
The Classmates website was created in 2002 by Matt Allen in a bid to help his wife contact old school friends. Its name spread without promotion, simply through word of mouth. Within five weeks, the site boasted a membership of some 5,000 people and online traffic became so heavy that the hosting site collapsed and a new host had to be secured overnight.
"The Irish travel so well and when they move away, the sentimentalism kicks in. The internet allows that nostalgia and allows people to be sentimental when they otherwise might not be," says Allen.
When registered, members can locate their school on an online list and add their name to a list of former pupils, upload a photo and write a note about themselves. Members can also use a notification system which informs them of when new classmates join their school site.
In addition to browsing the messages and photos of former classmates, members can contact each other directly via personal mailboxes but without ever revealing personal e-mail addresses or contact details.
Such details become known only when a member decides to share it with a classmate, often in the event of a class reunion being organised. In one recent reunion case, an former Irish schoolboyon-turned-Hollywood producer used the Classmates website to organise a class photo with his old class in the old school hall.
A similar Irish website, lostschoolfriends.ie, was established in March 2002 and by the end of its first year "sister" sites had opened in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, India and the Netherlands. The success of the website was further enhanced with a grant from Foras na Gaeilge which enabled the operators to provide a Gaelic version of Lost School Friends as cairdescoiltecaillte.ie. Since then, the international family of sites has grown to produce a total membership of over 180,000 worldwide and a database of 236,000 schools and colleges.
Such global online traffic is reflective of the upsurge in social networking online, according to Fergal O' Byrne, chief executive of the Irish Internet Association.With primary and secondary schools and third-level colleges providing increased and flexible access to computers, advertisers are now anxious to appear on the websites popular with young people.
"Advertisers are now falling over themselves to get onto these websites, so they can reach what the marketing textbook calls the impressionables," said O'Byrne.
Websites which allow people to exchange photos, messages and diary blogs are increasingly popular.
"In the US, there is a strong alumni feeling where everyone gets a yearbook and reunions are organised every year . . . In Ireland you're lucky to get a letter in the post every five years," said O'Byrne.
While he remains sceptical as to whether Ireland will follow the US frenzy of organising class reunions, O'Byrne predicts that many websites will eventually begin charging subscription fees.
Accessing and searching the UK website Friends Reunited, which is popular with Irish school-leavers and boasts more than 13 million members, is initially free. However, only subscribers who pay £10 per annum can initiate contact with their friends.
Friends Reunited was recently bought by ITV for more than £175 million (€252m), and operators claim that on average 5,000 new members register every day, so ITV's substantial investment is likely to be returned through subscription fees and lucrative advertising online.
The Friends Reunited website lists many success stories including one couple who ended a relationship at the age of 15 in 1983, only to rediscover each other 21 years later on the website. They were married in 2004. Other case studies include the reunion between an adopted child - now an adult - and her mother.
The UK already boasts sites along the lines of airport staff reunited, footballers reunited, cricketers reunited and ex-rugby players reunited, and Ireland is soon to move into this arena. Already, Classmates.ie plans to launch a workmates reunited website in the immediate future.
Life after class: new routes back to the old school
Where do I start?
www.classmates.ie
www.schoolfriends.ie
www.lostschoolfriends.ie
What's it all about?
Reuniting with lost contacts and lost friends
Showing off, comparing yourself and catching up
Making old flames into new flames
Why do people like it?
Curiosity
Nostalgia and social need to reconnect
Everyone can join in, since we all went to school
Who uses the site?
Everyone and anyone. There are people as young as 18 and as old as 84 registered on Classmates.ie
