Alternatives:
On a personal basis, over the last few years due to the Magic Of The Internet, I’ve become re-knowledgeable about the activities of people I hadn’t heard from in a LONG time. This has very much been a good thing from several standpoints: one gets to hear The Rest Of the Story, so to speak, and to compare notes on things.
One thing that really struck me is that it also led to me being sad that I missed out on certain things in people’s lives and glad that I missed out on others.
You find out about people who lived for and rolled in psychodrama in the past now living in their own circle of hell with children who perpetuate it back on them. (Think Alex Keaton-style reversals on drug-addled quarreling bed-hopping hippies and you get the idea, but give Alex the deed to the parent’s home and let him bwahaha evilly as he throws them out on the street.)
You find out about people who were a little bit way out there in whatever direction then are now waaaay out someplace beyond the Owl Nebula and redshifting away at hyperspeed (nakedly communing with nature spirits in British Columbia’s wildest forests at 55 in January gets cold and old).
And then there’s the kids you knew as babies who are now college-age and you would have found them fascinating to watch at close range - if you and their parents were still connected with each other over that period of time. Alas…
And there’s the pleasant surprises: people who were total dingdongs who got themselves together, and became sharp and successful. People you fully expected to hear about having been found dead in a gutter who became a serious humanitarian sort and is happily helping others avoid the ditch they got past. People who were nice then who are seriously warm, wonderful folks in the here and now are always a bonus, too.