Have you heard about the phenomenon of “promposal”? Until recently, I had never heard about this. Granted, my kids are still in the under-6 crowd so prom is wayyyyy not in our scope of interest right now. But I try to stay on top of current events. It never hurts to start thinking ahead, right?
So a promposal is basically like a marriage proposal, except instead of asking somebody to marry you, you’re asking them to the prom. If you search for “promposal” or “prom proposal,” it looks like the promposal ideas run the gambit.
There’s the normal “will you go to the prom with me?” type ask, accompanied by flowers, candy or a written note.
Or how about the more involved promposal involving arranged flower petals, lockers full of items of adoration, tea lights spelling out “Will you go to prom with me?”
Then there’s the more elaborate promposal (that gets closer to a marriage proposal) accompanied by jewelry with “prom” spelled out on an (expensive) ring or necklace.
Then there’s the “new generation” of promposal: the elaborate flash mob or some other large public display that involves somebody filming it and putting on YouTube. In the hallway. On a sports field. At the mall. Staged dances that end with the “ask.” It would rival any marriage proposal.
Now, I did not go to prom. But I think the idea of prom is sweet. It’s a fun way to cap a big year and just have fun with your friends and celebrate a transition. I get it. People have always asked other people to prom. There have probably always been elaborate schemes to ask somebody to prom.
But…. a prom “proposal”?
I mean, it’s just an invitation to go to a dance right? Shouldn’t we maybe reserve “proposal” for something a little more permanent or serious like, say, marriage? Does this term “promposal” challenge the sacredness of the marriage proposal, at least a little bit?
And, as with many other current trends, when tradition meets technology, questions arise. What are the pros and cons? What changes for the asker and the askee?
I can see some pros to the promposal. Kids can use their creativity and organizational skills to arrange such a thing. They’d have to work hard to earn any required funds (because trust me, no money of mine is paying for a promposal.) It would be a great memory and a story to tell (and video to show) your kids. It would be fun and make people feel special.
But then I see cons. As public “promposals” become a trend, it puts pressure on teens to have yet another venue to live out their life in public view. Another piece of their life to record and put on the Internet for the world to see, to share faster than lightning via the Internet. It also opens the door for teens to compare their experiences to other teens (an age-old tradition) and give them yet another reason to feel ‘not good enough.’ Not only can you feel bad now for not getting asked to prom, you can feel bad because you didn’t get a ‘promposal.’
But like I said. My kids are 4 and 5. What do I know? Parents of prom-goers, what do you think of the promposal?
Image license: By FrankieBugatti (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
About Mary Beth Cox