JOIN USSingle or committed? It's complicated!
One such interesting update on social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook is that of the relationship status — ‘Single’, ‘In A Relationship’ or ‘In An Open Relationship’ to name a few.
Metrolife speaks to a few youngsters, and asks them whether they change their status on social networking sites often.
Saritha, an employee with DTZ Property Consulting, used to keep changing her status on Facebook and Orkut till she got married.
“I used to keep changing it. At times, it would be ‘Single’ or ‘In A Relationship’,” she says. “Once I kept it as ‘In A Relationship With Another Girl’,” she laughs. “I used to change it for the fun of it, and to make people curious and generate a lot of comments.” However now that she has tied the knot, Saritha’s status on all the networking sites is constant — ‘Married’. “But my favourite relationship message is ‘It’s Complicated’ on Facebook.”
Parag Barhate, a student of MBA, feels people update their status on networking sites to let their friends know that they are active.
“It’s a way to not go out of people’s memory,” he notes. “Many girls do it to avoid friends’ requests from boys.” Parag himself has not revealed his true relationship status on his profile. “I’ve kept my status as ‘Single’ as my girlfriend has asked me to keep it that way,” he laughs.
As someone who doesn’t put up his status on networking sites at all, Waseem, a business development manager, doesn’t understand why people constantly change their status.
“I don’t think updating your status is necessary at all. It’s quite pathetic and shows that such people don’t live for themselves, but for others,” he says. “The main purpose of such sites is to keep in touch with people, not to seek attention.”
Marketing manager Jayesh has seen many of his friends constantly change their relationship status. “Some of them are married, but their status says they are single,” he notes. “But people who are in a genuine, trust-based relationship, will always tell the truth when it comes to their status.” He adds, “Some people want to prove that despite being married, they are still independent. While some people want to seek attention from the opposite sex. That’s why they change their status. However, if you are regular on these sites, you will be updating your status constantly anyway.”