Too Many Girls Hugging Too Many Girls For Facebook Profile Pictures

Representation pic only, though the hug is real

Berkeley. 21 September 2009

A path-breaking research by UC Berkeley’s Center for Social Studies has concluded what many were fearing for the last few months – too many girls are hugging too many girls to get the “most socially acceptable” profile picture on Facebook and other networking sites.

The study conducted over a period of 4-months scanned around 1 million Facebook profile pictures to deduce that “It’s more than a simple trend like Facebook quizzes. It’s become a compulsion like Farmville.”  Barbara Huxley, the post-doctoral student spearheading this monumental research admitted that – “There have been many incidents of girl-hugging-girl in the last few weeks, and all this points to a very disturbing need to belong.”

A rough estimate puts hugging pictures at around 48 percent of all female profile photos, with ‘abstract imagery or looking in the distance’ photos a far-second at 21 percent. Leira Kenterwock, a marketing executive, confided that she “was made to hug a friend at a party because of peer pressure. In fact, my whole life is a series of peer-pressured events. My hair-style, my deodorant, my boyfriends, even my cellphone’s ringtone is decided by my peer-pressure group.”

“Guys would never do such a hug-your-pal thing to get attention”, emphasized Mark Dillon, a community worker addicted to social media. “We are happy posing with our cars or dogs, things that make us human. Of course, the car has to be better than my friend’s and dog smarter”, Mark added.

Meanwhile, Facebook crashed for a few hours yesterday, giving a billion people worldwide a chance to get up and take a bath after months of networking.