…today’s prom is serious business. And I do mean business: The credit-card company Visa reports that prom spending will reach an average of $1,139 per family this year, up 5 percent since 2012. Most of that spending is still done by girls, who post their dresses on Facebook in the hopes that no one else will purchase the same one.
Meanwhile, boys now compete to devise the most elaborate ways to ask girls to prom. Two years ago, a student who serenaded his intended date in class — backed up by a cappella singers — ended up on “Good Morning America.” So-called “promposals” have since become ubiquitous on the Internet, generating millions of Youtube hits.
What’s going on here?