Social Media ji, “Rishta aya hai”

Corporates, start-ups, social entrepreneurs, individuals, teens, SMEs, students – all are going gung-ho about Social Networking.

Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Google+, Yammer and a hundred others: advertise karna ho, photos share karne ho, gaali dena ho, job dhundna ho, product launch karna ho, us bandi ko patana ho, gossip chahiye ya time pass karna ho – Social Media zindabad! – It is the latest frenzy, the marketing medium, the consumer aka revenue generator.

And also comes into picture: “The Great Indian Family” – Koi rishta aya hai? Ladke/Ladki ke baare main pata lagana hai? Go Social Media! is the new funda.

Several interesting encounters with the Social Media and Arranged Marriage cusp:

• A friend calls fervently from office – “Ek rishta aya hai, please log into my Facebook account and hide my relationship status, abhi.” ( It said : it is complicated)
• A curious friend calls up – “Meri behen ke liye rishta aya hai. The guy is in the friend list of your XYZ cousin’s friend’s friend Mr. ABC.” Now, do the task – Call my cousin to call his friend to further call his friend to find about the guy who is probably an acquaintance’s friend :P. After all, generally junta adds anyone they remotely know on their networking page – 2437 friends looks COOL!
  Ofcourse, the wait for the cycle of calls to finish and come back – aakhir ladke ki report toh jaane 🙂 !
• Another interesting conversation goes as follows:
  Grandfather to his grandson – “Today’s generation – phones, computers, friends. God knows where will you people go. Start going to the community temple, at least people will know you. How would they recommend girls for you if you do not socialise? These are eating your time away- God knows why your father doesn’t say anything.”A day later- Tring Tring!
  
  Grandpa picks up phone.. talks for ten minutes, notes down something on a piece of paper and calls out to his grandson: “Beta, woh tum log computer main kuch kuch dekhte ho na … tumhare liye ek rishta aya hai 🙂 zara is ladki ke baare main dhundo.” (hands over his notes)
  🙂

Change profile pictures to attract suitable bride/ groom; “About me” should be fancy and glamourous; Remove/ Hide controversial status messages, comments or pictures (ummm.. remove some friends from friend list too) … the list goes on.

Personally, I am not a fan of Indian arranged marriage system-it is more of “Sell yourself” than “Be yourself”. But that is a different story. Shoot me next time you meet me for digressing – now back to the point.

Toh point yeh hai ki, 30 years down the line an average Indian father would be narrating to his kid

“How I met your mother” : “Kids, our family was very modern – very ahead of times. Your great grand-dad heard about your mother and I saw her on Facebook (thinks – she did not have a LinkedIn profile with big degrees – much to dadaji‘s relief, she would not be the career-oriented types; and I had hidden my committed status), Ah! it was love at first sight.” (Thinks – “We started gelling more once she started working. We could relate.”)

Waah! kya pun hai 😛

So, in short chuck SM fatigue, who the hell cares about the analytics – % of people who see/click/convert, ignore both critics and enthusiasts – Social Media does contribute to the growth in Indian population ( eh, divorces too? :P) and modernizes the “Arranged marriage” system 🙂

Fodder: I have not researched whether matrimony sites/ agents are banking on Social Media -If they have not, for good or for bad, high time they say : Social Media ki jay ho! Lag jao bhaiyon bhed chaal main.

P.S: I feel there would be an extended version of this piece soon.