In today’s society, social media is a prominent aspect of teen life and can be used in ways that our parents would never have imagined. In their day, a prom proposal was nothing more than “Hey, do you want to go to the prom with me?” A simple yes or no.

Unfortunately, it has become tradition in recent years to put forth elaborate prom proposals. As with any tradition, people expect proposals to become more complicated.

I know of some prospective prom seekers who have said that they will only accept an elaborate proposal. If that’s the case, it forces the asker to propose elaborately or not at all.

If the he or she has to come up with something creative, just the act of putting it together has its own problems.

The most obvious problem is finding a creative proposal. Sometimes, it seems all the “creative” ideas have already been done, and many people may hesitate to do something if they know it will be repeated.

Another issue is that many unfortunate circumstances can prevent someone from pulling off his or her proposal. The reason could be due to distance, cost, confidence or a variety of other things. But whatever the issue is, it can easily force someone to ask in a simpler manner.

One quite important, but perhaps less acknowledged flaw, is that the process of asking puts whoever is being asked on the spot because if a person is the target of a well-planned proposal, even if they were hoping to go with someone else, it’s hard to be the bad guy and reject someone who clearly put a lot of time and effort into the proposal.

Also, part of the reason that there is so much emphasis on something memorable is the “That’s so sweet!” factor. Everyone wants to be the person who gets all the comments on the picture they posted to Facebook. Because social media has made it easy for things to get noticed by our friends, people really want something that other students will talk about.

Ironically, the stereotypical “lame” idea is to ask someone over Facebook or a text message.

I find it interesting that the same way people display their success has become almost taboo for garnering the success.

Sure, Facebook may seem a bit impersonal, but I don’t see what’s wrong with going up to someone and asking them straight out, to their face. It’s not fancy, and it’s not creative, but it relieves some of the stress and pressure associated with prom proposals, and in the long run is a better method.