Here’s a safe way to call that girl you dig an “angel face” and hit back at that big bully by branding him a “gangster”.
Just log on to Facebook and tag your friends on the much circulated animated photo album. With about 30 “personality” icons to choose from you get to decide which of friends is “the good little church girl” or who’s the “one that always swears”.
Thanks to this application that has caught on like wildfire among Facebook junkies, everyone’s busy tagging everyone now. Purbasha Mukherjee, an Adwords representative at Google says, “I was tagged as ‘the tiny dangerous one’ and ‘the one that is always hungry’. It was amusing but I have to admit it is true.”
Though everyone seems to be hooked on to it, no one knows who really came up with the idea first. “The friend who tagged me got it as a forward. But i’ve seen my friends in Mumbai and abroad use the same photo to tag each other. No one knows who started the trend but almost everyone has either added them or been tagged,” adds Purbasha.
With titles like ‘the grumpy one’, ‘the annoying one’, ‘the one that’s up to no good’ ‘the flirt’ etc., some look at these graphics as a great way to send out subtle hints to those they don’t like too much.
“The graphics are so cute than one can’t help but take it sportively, even if someone’s trying to be mean,” says Mitika Vazir, a student of Hamstech Institute of Design. “I think it’s a great way to say something funny, wicked or interesting. A friend of mine tagged me as ‘the one who always gets hurt’ and it is so true. Another friend of mine tagged me as ‘chatterbox’ which is also true. It’s total time pass.”
Archana Raghuraman who was tagged as ‘drama queen’ and ‘the one up to no good’ admits that these icons have a way of making you feel special no matter what they try to convey. “the person who tags his friends can tag just around 30 people. And when you are tagged from amongst 200 odd friends it shows you are special.”
Anand Parthasarthy, a student of Bhavan’s Degree College, however, was not one bit amused when he was tagged as “the gangster”. “I was thinking “the funny guy” as the icon that best describes me. I have never done anything to be labelled a gangster. But I’m not complaining since a classmate of mine was tagged as “the slow one”. Now I wouldn’t want to be called that!”