Drew: Are you my long-lost friend Daria?
Me: Yes, but I didn’t know I was lost.

I recently reconnected with two close friends. We’d lost contact due to some combination of distance, jobs, families, and the minutia of managing our day-to-day lives. Now they’re venturing online–and finding me.

One was deliberate; the other accidental. Drew did a Google search for my name. Wenche set up a Facebook profile, which immediately spit out my name as someone she might want to add as a friend. (I really want to know how Facebook develops their relevance algorithm as Wenche and I have no schools in common, no shared friends, and have never lived in the same city, state, or even country.) In each case, the initial reconnection led to a long phone call to catch up.

We talk a lot about how social media facilitates friendships and brings strangers together around common interests. But once in a while it’s good to remember that  it can also serve as a lost-and-found way station.

Photo by krossbow (Flickr).