“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.”
~Buddha
Facebook and other social networking platforms have allowed for reconnections with people who would have been lost to us had we lived in another time. High school friends I haven’t seen for decades are immediately accessible with a few clicks on my laptop.
No other generation in the history of evolution has been able to reach back with such ease into previous sociometric circles to sample how friends have fared throughout their lives. Other generations have not had the technology to do this, and a new awareness about how early indications during adolescence may affect future life circumstances has become part of our culture. We can readily see how our teenage buds have managed their lives, and they can see us.
This reaching back in time and considering the behaviors of our peer group opens the question to prediction: Do early indications of thought and behavior inform us of how someone will turn out?