Prom dress dibs on Facebook

Prom dress help from Facebook. Now girls can avoid the “omg is that the same dress???” anxiety by putting dibs on a dress on Facebook.

|
AP
Prom dress help from Facebook: Now girls can avoid the “omg is that the same dress???” anxiety by putting dibs on a dress on Facebook. Here, students arrive at the Anderson High School prom in Anderson, Ind. May 15, 2012.

Facebook has taken a lot of slack recently, especially when it comes to concerns about how the social networking site is impacting children. There are worries about Facebook promoting cyber bullying, body image problems, narcissism and even eating disorders.
 
But we have been hearing about another way that Facebook is revolutionizing the lives of teens – especially girls – and we’ve got to admit: We’re kind of jealous. This would have been really helpful back in 1994.

OK, so revolutionizing is not the right word. Compared to Kony 2012 and other social media campaigns, this is pretty embarrassingly vapid. But Facebook is now helping girls avoid the “omg is that the same dress???” anxiety that comes along with that end-of-year fete of Brat Pack film fame, the prom.

 

And, well, in teen world that matters. For better or worse.

The trend started a couple of years back, when girls began posting their prom dresses-to-be on their Facebook pages. It was a way to stake a claim to a particular frock, a way of letting friends and foes know to back off from the strapless pink number, even a way to get feedback and suggestions for accessories, shoes, and hairstyles.

The trend has grown, according to parents and teens. One mom I spoke to recently told me her daughter has been scouring her classmates’ pages daily, looking to see what dresses were “taken” with the junior prom coming up in a few weeks. Some websites and companies have tried to jump on the trend, setting up Facebook pages where people can call “dibs” on an outfit.

So is this all helpful? Or does this just amplify what is already an overly appearance-conscious society? Does it promote cooperation among girls, or does it smack of catty competition?

You tell us.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Prom dress dibs on Facebook
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2012/0521/Prom-dress-dibs-on-Facebook
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe