13NewsFollow us on www.twitter.com/easterneye • www.easterneye.eu • February 9, 2018

by NADEEM BADSHAH

MORE British Asians are staying single in their 30s after reject-ing marriage proposals - from looking at a per-son’s Facebook profile photo, experts claim.

Ahead of Valentine’s Day next week (14), match-making agencies have seen a rise in families turning detective to trawl the internet for social media images and information about potential suitors.

They warn it has led to “window shopping” with rejections and more men and women re-maining single as they hit 35. But some experts believe looking through a person’s profile pic-tures and information helps singletons decide on whether to meet them in person.

Parag Bhargava, who runs the Suman Marriage Bureau in London, told Eastern Eye: “People are put-ting aside important considerations like intelligence, family background and character for personal appearance and judging a book by its cover.

“That is why there are more people in their mid-30s not getting married. There’s a conveni-ence of looking online and swiping left and right, it has lost that personal touch.

“People should not use a photo of themselves as their profile on WhatsApp or on social media, if it’s a closeup it could make them look fatter or the lighting could be bad.

“And just because a person is good-looking, does not mean they have a good personality. Attraction is important, but it covers different things, as a person can grow on you.”

Research in 2012 found the proportion of peo-ple who have wed slipped from 51 per cent to just under 47 per cent. The number of single Britons increased by a quarter to 17.8 million people.

Bhargava added: “Match-making has become tougher because people are window shopping. They are losing out on good proposals.”

Separate research found people are waiting much longer to get hitched than they did 40 years ago. Around 80 per cent of brides in 1970 were younger than 25 years old but by 2012 the figure had plummeted to 14 per cent.

The number of grooms aged under 25 also fell by more than 90 per cent in same period.

Bhavna Barratt, a wedding expert and photogra-pher who runs bhavnabarratt.com, believes social media and dating websites allow British Asians to find their own spouse and meet like-minded people.

She told Eastern Eye: “There is a shift from the traditional arranged marriages to more of the ‘arranged to meet’ marriages, where the couples get to meet and find out if they are compatible.

“Social media has helped couples to arrange these meet-ups. A Facebook profile is seen as a biodata of the prospect. I shoot at least five wed-dings a year with couples who have met via shaadi.com and recently via Tinder.

“Social media has empowered more couples to find their own partners instead of the parents doing the legwork. They like the ease of arrang-ing a meeting with someone online via What-sApp or Facebook and the ability to filter people out quicker by looking at the profiles.”

Jia*, 27, from London, said when hunting for a husband through agencies she was alarmed by men who wore sunglasses, hats or sandals with socks in their photos.

The finance worker, who has been married for 18 months, said: “I found that some of these suitors looked different in every other picture. And I’m not just talking about filters here!

“Sunglasses and the hats made them look like different people. Whenever my parents put a marriage proposal forward to me, I found it helpful using the internet to gather some infor-mation on the potential spouse.

“In our culture arranged marriages are com-mon, but it’s always difficult to get an accurate picture on how their appearance and character may be. Social media made the detective job a lot easier.”

*Name has been changed

‘Window shopping’ singlesin no rush to get married SOCIAL MEDIA SNOOPING BEING USED TO FIND PARTNERS

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With the grace of Bhagwan Swaminarayan and the blessings of

His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj, we personally invite you, your family, friends and relatives

to join us in celebrating the auspicious festival of Maha Shivaratri.

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LUCKY IN LOVE:More British Asiansare rejecting proposals; and (left) Bhavna Barrett