Friends with benefits

A series of events titled DateMyFriend.ppt takes wingman-ship to the next level by letting the best friends of potential singles pitch their friend's attributes to a crowd via PowerPoint in three minutes. A trend that set sail in Boston and New York, has found many takers in India too.

It was inevitable. In a world presided over by presentations, it was only a matter of time that the millennials would start to use PowerPoint to create dating portfolios that would up their A game. And they’ve also buddied up to help their friends get dates, if the popularity of the DateMyFriend.ppt events in Boston and NYC are to be believed. It’s #friendshipgoals all the way, where they get three minutes in the limelight to pitch their friends using their own wit and charm along with a PPT. It’s worked for many in the US, but will youngsters here take to it?

Sound engineer Timothy DeCosta seems to like the idea. "It sounds really cool; I have a ton of friends who’d do it for me. It reminds me of the series How I Met Your Mother. I think the line ‘Have you met Ted?' is a brilliant ice-breaker. Especially if the person introduced is timid or shy," he says.

Quickly coming up with a strategy, he muses, ‘If I were to do this for a friend, I’d start with the kind of person they are. Give examples and have fun while I’m doing it. It’s important to keep the presentation about the friend. Content is king, so a ton of videos and photos aimed at showing what you want them to see would be useful. Close with a video of the friend being overly modest about the introduction.”

Meanwhile Aishwarya Kumar, a student, is surprisingly old school when it comes to dating. ‘PPTs are used in very professional context and, in my opinion, if a person actually wants to get to know about someone, he/she would rather do the millennial thing of talking. And then see how it proceeds. Also, a PowerPoint presentation is more of a way to sell a product. We can’t portray humans as products. We’d rather sit with a glass of wine and get to know the person and later take things forward,” she is clear. Aishwarya adds, ‘I’d rather choose a friend who’d sit with me and advise me on my next move than treat me like a commodity and ‘sell me’. I believe in communication and talking things over as opposed to a mere PPT.”

Entrepreneur Priya Jain laughs, ‘I think millennials have way too much time on hand. But the trend may be onto something… it seems to be preparing them for a life of presentations. I would love to hear of any success stories. I think the older trend of just introducing friends at a casual get-together works best. Nonetheless, if a friend asks me to do something like this for them, then it sure seems fun and I’ll definitely do it.”

Popular stand-up comedian Harman Preet Singh seems to agree, “The trend looks interesting. It’s something that I’d definitely do and I also have a friend in mind already. With three minutes to speak about him, you can expect a lot of pun-intended jokes. More than the outcome, I feel the process is exciting. Especially when a friend has to speak about your habits and personality! I look forward to see what my friends would do.”