So, a big part of my morning is devoted to reading newspapers and today — being Valentines Day — has made that part of the job a little bit hilarious. Old people and sex in the New York Times, PIs having a field day in regional papers and as a high priority for journalists, and — my personal favorite — breaking up via text in the Wall Street Journal:
Wall Street JournalSubscribe to the WSJ to read more. ; )
MOVING ON
By JEFF ZASLOW
February 14, 2007
its not u ... :(
High-Tech Breakups Are Quick But Inflict a Special Pain; Getting Even on ihateher.com
Rebekka Olsen is just 26 years old, but she recalls the days when people used to say: "This is not a conversation to hold on the phone. This is something we'll need to discuss in person."
That is why, when things weren't working out recently with a man she was dating, she assumed it required one of those uncomfortable face-to-face talks. Before she could arrange it, however, the man sent her a cellphone text message: "Chek yr email."
So she did. His email read: "This is getting too serious. I think we should stop seeing each other. If we could still be friends, it would make me real happy."
Floored by the fact that she was being dumped by email, Ms. Olsen ignored him. A few hours later, he sent another text message: "chk yr email yet?"
There was a time when romances often ended in one final tearful embrace. But Ms. Olsen's techno brush-off -- her former beau even skimped on the vowels -- is common and concerning. Almost one in 10 cellphone users age 18 to 34 have "texted" someone out of their romantic lives, according to a survey released this week by Virgin Mobile USA. That stat doesn't even include emailed kiss-offs.
Yes, the lack of face-to-face contact can avoid prickly encounters and get the deed done without bloodshed. But as we contemplate Valentine's Day 2007, it also is an indication that interpersonal relationships today are often less personal and more cowardly than they used to be.
The techno brush-off has offshoots, too, that relationship experts find troubling. There is the techno-AWOL breakup, where a person doesn't answer emails or instant messages for however many days it takes for someone to get the hint. Meanwhile, 20% of singles say it is acceptable to reveal details about a breakup on Web logs, or blogs, or other Web outlets, such as MySpace or YouTube, according to a survey this year by relationships Web site Engage.com.
"All the lines are blurring," laments Ms. Olsen, who works for a nonprofit educational organization in Boston. "There need to be new rules."
Tour the Internet and you will find tens of thousands of breakup tales. Some are on sites such as Dontdatehimgirl.com or Ihateher.com. Many others are posted on people's personal blogs...
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