One in 10 Aussies has been dumped via a text message, apparently. I’d warrant a guess that most of them are over it now, but the relationship counsellors Down Under?

Well, they’re still extremely upset.

They’re getting their knickers in a twist over ‘lack of respect’ and ‘communication issues’ and questioning on behalf of today’s poor, emotionally stunted youth – where did it all go wrong?

Californian psychologist Gian Gonzaga says: “Breaking up is a very difficult thing to do and sometimes people take the easy way out with a text message.

“You’d hope that people are able to treat others with the respect they deserve. The more impersonal the break-up, the harder it is on the individual at the other end.”

Yawn. Call me cold-hearted, but I really can’t see what the big deal is. I mean, I’m not suggesting anyone kicks their childhood sweetheart to the curb with a merciless “UR DUMPED :-p” message.

But when low-key relationships come to an end, all you really want is to save a bit of face.

If your booty call decides he or she has had enough, or someone you’ve had a few drinks with just isn’t feeling it, a short but sweet SMS does the job fine.

Then you’re free to overreact in private – call friends, agonise, feel completely gutted, have a little cry and then text back something breezy and dignified.

A friendly e-dump does pay you respect by implying: “I’m sure this is no biggie for you either.”

Consider this hideous alternative: a friend of mine got invited out for an ‘important dinner’ by a man she’d been seeing for all of three weeks.

When she arrived, her stupendously arrogant date held her hand across the table and, looking into her eyes, said: “I have some very sad news for you. I don’t want to see you anymore.”

That, to me, is utterly brutal.

She had to sit through two more courses of him asking if she was OK every 10 minutes and shooting her concerned, sorrowful looks. Yeeuuch.

She wasn’t crazy about the guy, but that dinner? Took her months get over.

 

No more viral clips, please

If you’re one of the nation’s really cool kids, you’re probably reading this while one of your mates films you, another splashes a pint of milk over your head and everyone else leaps about, hooting with laughter and squealing: “This is kerrraaazzzyyy, man!”

Which is fine. I’d find the ‘milking’ craze pretty funny too if one of my friends was doing it – especially if I was good and drunk.

Same goes for ‘Batmanning’. I’d be in hysterics if I was seven pints into the night and someone decided to hang upside down from my shed roof.

But for god’s sake, please, don’t send me yet another grainy clip of a student I’ve never heard of being daft.

I’m probably at my desk, stone cold sober when I open it, and won’t find it remotely as amusing as they obviously do.

Unless it’s of the naked guy that climbed on Whitehall’s Prince George statue that is. Dude, that was bloody hilarious.

Agree or disagree? Is it cruel to dump someone by text? letters@tntmagazine.com

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