Brides on Facebook welcome no more?
The social networking space founded by the lanky college kid Mark Zuckerberg many years ago is no longer an intimate networking space. Once a passionate venture by a young man today is 3,000 person operation and a “soon-to-be-public corporation with $3.9 billion in cash and an $85 billion to $100 billion valuation which spent $1 billion to gobble up a much-smaller competitor, the photo-sharing app Instagram,” as CNN reported.
A recent matrimonial advert in a national newspaper seeking a “non-Facebook using bride” combined with the parental research that goes on in the Facebook sphere when seeking an alliance brings to light the “uncool” factor or rather the undesirable factor.
Fashion designer Rehane says, “A casual comment by a friend on Facebook on a photograph can be misconstrued by a prospective mom-in-law or the groom itself. The sanctity of Facebook friendships is out of the window the minute you put yourself out there for opinion of thousand people.”
Dr Anuja Agrawal, associate professor, department of sociology in University of Delhi, says this could be one odd matrimonial advert or it could be a beginning of such request asking for non-Facebook brides and grooms. “Some people have strong views about those who use Facebook. But only time will tell if other communities start requesting the same. Facebook is a recent phenomenon and contrary to what others believe, not everyone is there on Facebook. A particular age group, and those who have access to Internet are part of it, but there are largely others who are not on this social networking site. It has opened up a new kind of communication, which we’re still getting used to.”
Drawing clear boundaries between when desirable turns to undesirable Pavithra Krishnaswamy, a 16-year-old student of Presentation Convent who is going to Harvard to study political science, says, “Facebook celebrities are those who put up hot pictures and become instantly famous. Most of these people are from well-known families in the city or in India. They lead glamorous lifestyles. This popularity works for them when it comes to dating in the initial stages but in the long run with all that exposure they become stale and their desirability at the wedding stage dips.”
Designer Ashim Singh of the label Ashii finds it bizarre. She says that in this world of technology not-being a part of a social networking site is “uncool”. “It’s true that people can form their own opinions by going through your Facebook page. But then you can be discreet. One can hide certain things from public viewing in order to maintain one’s privacy,” she says.
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