Recently, a Denver music scene personality (who asked to remain anonymous, for obvious reason) reached out to me to tell me his tale of getting dumped via Twitter. It's as tragic as it sounds.
The guy didn't get dumped via direct message (Twitter's version of e-mail, a private, two-way communication). No, his beloved reached out and broke his heart via an open tweet that went out to all of her 700-plus followers. Ouch. That's a very public way to get dumped.
He said he did get some nice sympathy Tweets -- and about forty new followers -- out of the deal, but no rebound dates. Asked for a comment on the whole thing he said only, "Twitter is a fad, Twitter is a fad, TWITTER IS A FAD." Can't blame the guy, can you?
On the contrary, though, I expect his tale of woe means just the opposite -- that Twitter has fully arrived on the social media landscape. It seems like once a new communication technology is really established, it becomes a new, cruel way to break someone's heart.
The e-mail break-up is commonplace, sadly. It wasn't long after everyone started texting that one of my friends got dumped via text message, and I bet most of you know someone (or are someone) who's had the same experience. I'm sure plenty of Facebook users have noticed "in a relationship with" disappear from their page. And if you drop out of your girlfriend's Top 8 on MySpace? Well, get the hint.
Social media -- providing all new ways to be very antisocial!
