What is that disease? I’m morbidly curious.
I think there’s a lot of that. I don’t know why there would be any correlation between being Internet-savvy and being active on social media. Hell, I was using the Internet when it was still widely known as Arpanet, I’ve had email accounts so long that I think I still have messages from Moses, but I don’t do social media.
ISTM that there’s a much higher correlation between social media participation and being a high school student than there is with being technologically sophisticated.
“Internet savvy” used to mean “Can operate Google”. It now means “Is active on Facebook”.
Not a useful term IMO.
Of all the things I’ve posted on this board, why did this one trip a question?
Since she’s dead, I’ll ignore the obvious ‘one could find the individual with this info’:
Cancer of the brain.
Happy now?
And, to head off the follow-up:
There is only one other which scares me as much: Ebola (and its cousins).
Christ, you’re complaining about being one of only 19,600,000 goggle hits? How’d you like to be in my thongs (i.e. single name, like Cher, Prince, Madonna—but more…uh…magical. I wish to keep my anonymity, but my name rhymes with Mesus). Yeah, I’m dead last of 660,000,000 google hits. My old buddies have to be pretty persistent to find me at 660,000,001. I did, however, find this SEO guy who promised to get me to #1 if I pay him lot money, which I did, so we’ll see how that pans out.
More seriously, there are 2 old friends I have never been able to find. One was one of the smartest guys I’ve known (highest SAT score in the state, graduated high school a year early, Johns Hopkins a year early, dental degree, medical degree, board certified radiologist…then I lost touch with him). The other was one of the baddest guys I’ve known. When we were kids he used to pelt all the neighborhood kids in the face with snowballs (ok, I helped him)…and he did other bad stuff, too. I can’t find hide nor hair of either of those guys, they’re names are just t0o common…or they may be dead.
I did, however find one of my most cherished old girlfriends after years of searching the net in vain for her. She was the girl I always wished I’d married (and she wanted to), instead of the battle ax I ended up with. I figured, hey, I’m divorced now, my kids want me to hook up with someone new they can call mommy…what the heck, let me give it a shot!
And, I finally found her! And, she’s single! And, I contacted her!
…and now she won’t leave me alone. Let’s just say…the years and the Twinkies have not been overly kind to her.
Beware what you seek; you might find it.
For the record:
I was in ONE phone book in the SF Bay Area - how many phone books were there circa 2006?
The phone book I was in had several of my spelling of my last name and was the only one with a complete first name - there were, IIRC, 2 listings with last name and first initial which matched mine.
The people sending the stuff did not know the recipient well enough to know his city, and could not have been certain that I was he, even if they got the city right.
I am not complaining about the hits - I LIKE the obscurity. Follow the thread - you’d know I was avoiding broadcasting myself on the web.
I was not aware that brain cancer is limited to the Western Hemisphere. Cite?
How old would your DDS/MD friend be (to the decade is OK). If you can’t find him online, the most likely scenario is the same one that happened to my acquaintaince. 
Sorry to resurrect my own zombie …
Still haven’t found the friend I mentioned in my OP, but this morning I managed to find the Japanese foreign exchange student I knew for a few hours in 1984 
Wow, um, she’s gorgeous … I didn’t even remember what she looked like in 1984; all I remembered was her name. She was, actually, the very first Japanese national I ever met. She gave me her home mailing address in Japan, but being a teenaged dumbass, I never actually wrote her a letter. But I’ve searched her name a handful of times over the last 20 years, with no results. I wasn’t really expecting success, given that so many years have passed, and she was probably married and had a new name.
But last night, I was on Facebook and decided to search her name, as she gave it to me in 1984, and I got exactly one match. So I sent a message to that match: “Were you a foreign exchange student to the USA, [my town], in 1983-84?” And I signed my name, リックオズボ－ン
I got this reply, at 3:42AM (Pacific Standard Time):
“Hi! Yes, I was a foreign exchange student in [redacted] High school！
What a sweet surprise! So glad you find me. It’s been so long. How have you been?”
Given the time difference between here and Japan, I don’t expect to hear back from her again until tomorrow. But this is too cool! Now I’m encouraged to try to find the other three foreign exchange students I befriended that year — one from Germany, one from Denmark, and one from Argentina. The German will be the hardest one, being the other woman, probably having a different last name than she had when I knew her. The Dane and the Argentinian were guys.
Oh, wait, the German girl gave me her mailing address too (yes, I still have this stuff), though, of course, this being 1984, the address is in West Germany. Though I’m not sure about the address format:
[her name]
Bayernstr [number]
[number] KASSEL
W. Germany
Vodka?
May have found the guy from Argentina. Again, exactly one match came up on Facebook, and everything on his page is in Spanish, and there are plenty of photos of him. Except, it’s difficult when you haven’t seen somebody in 30+ years. I remember him at 18 years old, and now I’m looking at photos of a ~50-year-old guy, thinking, “Well, it could be him …”
I have an old elementary/middle/high school buddy that seems to have dropped off the face of the planet. Very smart kid, very computer savvy – the only way he’d be out of touch is if he chose to be (or something unfortunate happened). For reference, I went to college in the late 90s.
His dad is a prominent lawyer in my hometown with a successful law practice. I’ve considered emailing his dad (whom I know but haven’t seen for 20 years) to ask him “hey, what’s up with junior – how’s he doing?”… but I haven’t yet, since I assume that my old friend is staying out of touch for a good reason (and if something bad happened, I don’t want to bring it up with his dad out of the blue).
I recently looked up my old roommate from CT. We parted not on bad terms, but fraught nonetheless: I had to leave really quickly without any notice at all and she was really upset - she only knew I was leaving about 4 hours before I had to leave the country (visa problems). I was in a really bad place in my life when I left and I never spoke to her again. I wanted to apologise for that, and for the mess of the lease that I left her with.
Finally found her. It was a memorial page. She killed herself in August.
Blackendecker.
If you google my name you will end up with several pages of a character from the Harry Potter movies/books.
At our 10-year reunion, I heard and said many times, “The women all look pretty much the same, but the men all look way different!” That’s even more true now.
However, the main reason women looked different at that reunion, other than changes in hair and clothing styles, was that a huge percentage of them, being in their late 20s, were pregnant.
The women will say the opposite I am sure…
No matter how unique the name, you can find it again. On the site nearwildheaven posted, findagrave.com. Its wild how ununique names can be, also how many duplicates of your own name
I’m sure the father has experienced things weirder than having someone contacting them out of the past, go for it. You’re not losing anything unless you’re sending him a snail mail
So sorry…people who commit suicide hurt so bad, I feel so bad not to be able to help them
Oh and if any of you are looking for someone, just keep at it. Looks for possible relatives, check for variant spellings on names, a lot of people on Facebook do not use their real names and really no one should. I dont
I had a friend in High School who lived on my street. Last I knew, he was studying engineering at a good University, and then we lost touch. This was pre-internet (more or less), let alone things like social media.
As Facebook and other things came along, and I started to reconnect with HS friends, I thought to look out for him. Nothing. I thought with an engineering background, he’d be all over the Web. Nope. Unique name, too.
I was travelling once and was reading the Washington Post and in a story that had nothing to do with anything, I saw his name. It had to be him. He had completed his engineering degree (EE) as well as a Law degree and an MBA, all from top schools. He was now the Emperor of a small Caribbean nation, according to the article.
I looked up the number of his law office and we ended up talking for an hour one night. He invited me to visit him, and I did. Yes, he is the Emperor. He isn’t in politics, but he knows everyone who is, and they take his calls. If you need wheels greased for a business deal, talk to him. If you need a cleaner, he’s the guy. If your kid gets caught at the airport in this country with a kilo of something he shouldn’t have, pick up the phone. Be prepared to open your checkbook, but it’s better than him spending 15 years in a hot, steamy prison with some really nasty people and guards who don’t give a crap about you.
He doesn’t need to be “connected”. Everyone who needs him will be directed to him. He has a new life in a new place. Just to be clear, he isn’t involved in crime other than representing some unsavory characters.
What a wild weekend we had…