U R Dumped: Breaking Up in the Digital Age

 

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She said she and her boyfriend of nine months will typically send 10 to 15 texts a day to each other while at work, and sent at least that many while arguing over whether he would come to pick her up at a bar.

Usually, she said, the two would not argue via text, but her boyfriend Matt got so annoyed he shot off a quick message.

"This relationship is unhealthy. I can't do this any more. It's over," she read from her phone's inbox.

By the next day, however, Jessica had more than just a hangover. After a conversation -- in person -- she and Matt decided to stay together.

ABCNews Photo Illustration

Breaking up with some via text mesage is becoming more common and more socially acceptable, just ask Britney Spears or the Prime Minister of Finland

Is It Really So Wrong?

Grish said that in relationships in which texting is a standard form of communication, texting can be an appropriate way to break up.

"We all deserve to be dumped gently, and choosing the medium depends on how long you've been with a partner," she said. "If it is casual, and you only meet late at night or once a week, it is not so egregious to tell them the fun time is over using the same digital medium most of your meetings have been set up through anyway."

Relationships that are more serious, she said, deserve at least the courtesy of a phone call -- a medium that until the Digital Age was long considered too impersonal a means by which to dump someone.

But regardless of the medium or the amount of etiquette involved, one universal truth is unlikely to change, Grish said: "There is no nice way to dump someone. It always sucks."