Status Symbol!

Status symbol has always been an indispensable part of human social life. Generations and generations have submitted to its rule. Status symbols vary from material things like car, house, job etc. to girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, husband. Recently I read somewhere that now-a-days not only girlfriend or boyfriend is considered as a status symbol but number of ex-girlfriends or number ex-boyfriends! Well, things have changed and status symbols too with time.

I remember a television set being a status symbol in early 1980s. A telephone or a scooter which needed years of waiting would make you a cynosure. A maruti car was another one. The list was pretty small compared to the one in present generation. Indeed, things were simpler in those days. A decent job, a good healthy family were the only things a bride's father would look for in a groom.

School life is really funny. Even today I remember some of things and those make me laugh. Label-stickers on which we would write names, subject etc and stick on the books were considered status symbols! Bicycle in that time just like motorcycles today would make you popular among your schoolmates. Having an entire GIJoe set or a video game was the maximum you could achieve to attract crowds to your home in vacations.

With the technological revolution, the definition of status symbol has changed. Today we want to know not only if other person has a cell-phone but also what service provider he/she is using, what features the phone has, we want to know if the laptop has 2GB RAM or 4 GB RAM (given that more than 2GB RAM is hardly ever used). If I am sounding a bit negative, there are some improvements too. Yesteryears, being fat was considered a status symbol. Today we pay to become leaner, thinner. Education is another status symbol of today.

Status symbol has always been and will always be a topic for we gossip-hungry people. Thats what makes life more interesting!