Facebook, BBM as results carriers

Paakhi Modi got her Class 10 ICSE results a little before 3pm on Tuesday. Within five minutes, 87 of her friends across India knew that she had scored 92%.

Paakhi Modi got her Class 10 ICSE results a little before 3pm on Tuesday. Within five minutes, 87 of her friends across India knew that she had scored 92%. Her secret to such speedy communication: her BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) status update.

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Gone are the days when friends would call each other to find out their scores. Students this year simply updated their Facebook and BBM statuses. Accompanying the scores were smileys and triumphant phrases and for the not-so-happy a simple phrase such as ‘could have done better’.

“In a matter of minutes, I got several congratulatory messages. Others too had started updating their BBM statuses and I pinged them as well,” said Modi, who put up her pass percentage with ‘yippie’ in capital letters.

Those who don’t have a Blackberry resorted to “old-fashioned” Facebook. “All my Class 10 friends put up their percentages with a little note of their mood,” said Anmol Mehta who got 91.6%.

Kritika Jain went a step ahead and found out her results from a link on a friend’s Facebook page. “I could not access the ICSE website, so I looked at my friend’s account and figured a website that was faster,” said Jain, who scored 88%.