The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

The Future of Us 

Author:  Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Publisher:  Razorbill

Publication Date:  November 21st 2011

From Goodreads:

It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives.  They've been best friends almost as long- at least, up until last November, when Josh did something that changed everything.  Things have been weird between them ever since, but when Josh's family gets free AOL CD in the mail, his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer.  When they sign on, they're automatically logged onto their Facebook pages.  But Facebook hasn't been invented yet.  And they're looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.  

By refreshing their pages, they learn that making different decisions now will affect the outcome of their lives later.  And as they grapple with the ups and downs of what their futures hold, they're forced to confront what they're doing right- and wrong- in the present.

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This was a straight up trip to read for me, I graduated 1997, so the references were WOW.  It's hard to believe that during my days, beepers were the rage and cell phones were really big, seriously.  As a senior I had only seen one cell phone, it belonged to my friends older sister who worked for a newspaper.  It had a huge carrying case..lol.  Anyways, I loved the whole idea of The Future of Us, but I didn't LOVE it.  

Emma and Josh aren't real likable characters, IMO.  Emma is obsessed with getting the details of her life perfect, and is constantly changing things up to see if she can spruce up her life 15 years into the future. And this is all going by snippets she posts on Facebook 15 years later.  She reads these one line statuses and decides she must be miserable.  Whatever!  Josh on the other hand is loving what Facebook says is his future.  He's married to a beautiful girl he goes to High School with, who  he thinks would never give him the time of day in current 1996.  He vacations in exotic places, and seems to live the LIFE.  Except when he starts hanging out with his future wife, he's not really feeling the connection.  Will he eventually feel a love spark.  

Somehow through Facebook they recognize what they mean to each other and how it's better not to be consumed with life 15 years into the future. It gets all  wrapped up in a nice little bow for you.    I feel like they hit the surface only with The Future of Us.  The possibilities were endless, somehow they dropped the ball for me.