Social Networking Through Social Memory With Were You There

Were You There offers a unique slant on social networking, bring people together through shared memories of major social events. Have you ever wanted to ask someone about the experiences they've had in their life? Were You There gives you a place to go to find those stories about the personal experience of commonly shared events.

Were You There doesn't just focus on the community of larger events, either. It also gives you a place to touch on common social memes: first cars, first dates, first loves, weddings, music and more. It operates on the premise that every one has a story to tell, whether it is about one memory or a hundred. Where there are stories to be told, there are people who want to hear them.

Were You There doesn't just restrict you to the written word. It gives you a place to post your photos, audio files and videos of your favorite memories as well. Rather than make it complicated, the site makes it simple to post text, audio or visuals all in one Add A Post area.

It's easy to get lost on Were You There, trolling the memories of others for common ground. I found it fascinating how many different types of people had found the site. From survivors of Pearl Harbor to teens posting about their first kiss, Were You There already has a diverse array of people who want to share what they've experienced and how it touched their lives.

One of my favorite things about the site were the number of people in my grandparents generation using it. I always want to hear the stories my grandparents can tell about their lives, but often they are too humble or shy to tell them. On Were You There, there are several posts, as well as audio, photos and videos like this one found under the category Remembrances made by a Pearl Harbor survivor.

Once you find a post you like, you can add it to your favorites, send it to someone in an email, add it to your alerts, or create a post in the same topic. Alerts will let you know when new material is added to a topic, or when a new post is up by a favorite person. They also let you know if there is activity on a favorite post. You can also receive mail from other users and send them mail as well.

The site also offers a place to join or create communities that is similar in interface to a standard forum board. the current communities are often based on events and shared experiences, such as place for members of a military unit to reconnect. There are no restrictions on what your community should be about, it just seems that the nature of the site has encouraged the theory of shared experience to trickle over into the forums in a natural extension of the site itself.

Overall, I was pleased with my experiences on the site. It now has a permanent place in my bookmarks - I can't get enough of people's stories. The layout is clean and uncluttered, done in a simple blue and white. There weren't any glitches uploading or viewing content, and no drag times loading the pages on the site. Posting your own story and getting to know the stories of others is easy and fun. It's a blast getting "lost" browsing what amounts to snippets of the collective conscious.