Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

YOUNG COUPLES are increasingly announcing their break-ups over social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook. Having had enough of her boyfriend's "I have notime" ways, Tanuja (name changed) logged in and ended her two-year relationship by simply changing her personal details on Facebook. These networking sites with profiles have all personal and professional details with a friends' network. By changing her relationship status from "committed" to "single," and removing all pictures of the boyfriend from her page, Tanuja was sending out the mes- sage loud and clear The update was immediately sent to all her friends: and it was not long before one of them began to flirt with her Tanuja is not the only one. Social network users are becoming candid about their break-ups. "Teens adapt dating practices to the technologies they use. So it is not surprising that the intimate acts are made visible on these social networking sites. Online publicness

Beijing: A leading Chinese match making portal will check the age, marital status and other personal details of prospective cyber daters against an official database to prevent deception. The portal, Baihe.Com will screen its eight million online daters from Monday against an “ID authentication system”. The new system was jointly developed by the website and the ministry of public security. “In the long run, we’ll arrange dates only for those who are proven to be telling the truth,” company Ceo Jason Tian said. Tian said the move would enhance trust among online daters, improve credibility and prevent deception, and employees of the website would keep the daters’ personal information strictly confidential. Most Chinese rely on friends and relatives to find a partner, and lack of trust is often cited as a major reason for spurning Internet services. “People tend to misrepresent themselves online and you never know if you are being told the truth,” said schoolteacher Sun Wei. A surve

For probably the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one, according to a New York Times analysis of census results. In 2005, 51 per cent of women said they were liv ing without a spouse, up from 35 per cent in 1950 and 49 per cent in 2000. Coupled with the fact that in 2005 married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time, the trend could shape social and workplace policies. Several factors are driving the statistical shift. Women are marrying later or living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods. At the other end, women are living longer as widows and, after a divorce, are more likely than men to delay remarriage. Source: SAM ROBERTS