JOIN USWith the advent of technology, showing one’s support to any cause is just a click away. It is more of a fanciful trend to support anything and everything on the internet, rather than understanding the significance of the issue.
In a country where conventional norms are hard to break, and one has to fight to choose her/his own life partner or where honour killing still exists, homosexuality continues to be a big taboo. But, with the legalisation of gay marriages in a country which is 13,000 km away, there was an immense flow of support to the US law by Indians on Facebook.
They added a tint of rainbow colours to their already captivating profile pictures.
Still, did everyone know its significance? Or was it just about following the US, which is not the first country to legalise gay marriages? A trend that is still persistant in social media, youngsters comment and share their opinions with ‘Metrolife’.
A futile exercise
Arash, a BBM student of St Joseph’s College of Business Administration, feels that the trend on Facebook was pointless.
He says, “It was really nice to wake up and see so many people changing their display pictures to rainbow colours. But, in the Indian scenario, this was just a trend, following the herd. People in India struggle to get married to the woman they love, let alone marrying a partner of the same sex. Hence I see the changing of display picture as pointless.”
The herd mentality
Ashwini Agarwal, a BBM student of St Joseph’s College of Business Administration says. “I support gay rights. It is a person’s personal decision and opinion not to be interfered by others. But, supporting by tampering Facebook pictures does not really help. People put their pictures after a long selection. Why would they want to paint it just to show their support? We have a tendency to blindly follow the crowd. This isn’t a true representation of the number of people supporting gay marriages.”
Pointless move
Saba Asad, a student of St Joseph’s College of Business Administration says, “It is bizarre that so many Facebook friends have put a translucent rainbow filter on their pictures. It would have been sensible to demand the legalisation of gay marriage in India, but this is just so pointless because the ‘#celebratepride’ is not going to change anything in the LGBT community in India. I feel that more than changing pictures, we should try to change the perception of our fellow Indians towards homosexuality.”
Impressive impact
Madhulika Shome, a graduate of Mount Carmel College says, “In today’s world where social media can influence people to a large extent, this campaign did have a great impact. On seeing great support, people might choose to broaden their perspective and for India, this was a good channel to extend our support and respect the choice of others.”
Raising concerns
Jude Jacob, a student of St Joseph’s College of Business Management, says, “I do not think it is right to support gay marriage but the way things are going forward, I do not think this can be helped. Nowadays, people are just waiting to raise an issue on social networking sites. Some have genuine concerns, but the others just want to create a hype or follow what others are doing.”