Recently, I have received several invitations to join the “schoolFeed by Classmates” app on Facebook – from people I knew and went to school with in Richfield, Idaho, many years ago.  I am very, very selective these days about which apps I authorize, by I finally signed up.  When I joined the app, I hoped to connect with a few new people whom I haven’t seen for ages.  However, I was presented with a long list of folks who all graduated from Richfield High School – just not the tiny one I attended with only 13 people in my graduating class!

The trouble with this app is that it apparently fails to recognize that “Richfield High School” can apply to any number of high schools in the country, not just the tiny one I went to. I suppose those on the list are all nice people, but just not the ones I remembered.  But I did get a nice complement for a picture I posted from a person I had never met!  How bad is that?

This is a clear example of how attaching an attribute like “Richfield High School” to my online identity does little good unless that attribute is unique enough to satisfy the need for which it was intended.  In this case, it fell woefully short!

But the app is in “beta” release – which automatically forgives all blatant errors, even if they strike at the very heart of the app’s driving purpose, right?