Breaking up with someone has probably never been an easy task. How tell him or her that it’s over? However, the possibilities of how to do this have changed quite a lot over time. Let me give you a short “historic” overview:

Pre-web and pre-post times — only possibility: a personal encounter to tell him or her the unpleasant truth. Very inconvenient, as this would often lead to all kinds of unpleasant situations (hysterical fits, black eyes, … you get the picture).

Pre-web times – public postal service available (but mind your spelling and hope that the mail isn’t lost on the way)

Web 0.5 – mobile phones have arrived! No WAP yet, but SMS are very convenient – cheap, quick and easy. No need for eye contact or keeping your voice down. A paradise for serial break-uppers.

Web 1.0 – emails are the latest fashion. Now this does add a new dimension to ending a relationship – just as cheap and impersonal as an SMS, but much more space for nasty verbal kicks! And no blotched stains on the writing paper revealing that is not as easy for you as you are pretending… Perfect for those who need more than 140 characters for their message.

Web 2.0 (today) – interactivity, gadgets and constant connectivity are the order of the day, and people need to invent new forms of ending their relationships. Jimmy Wales, who is one of the founders of the free online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, probably thought he’d take the lead and has now shown us how to break up 2.0 – by announcing the news on his Wikipedia profile… and confirming it on his blog. Very 2.0 indeed.

His former girlfriend’s stylish reply was even more web 2.0. She put his old stuff up for sale on Ebay, and successfully, too: the current bid for one of James’s T-shirts is 500 US-Dollars…a true war of the roses 2.0.
When will people start breaking up on Facebook or Twitter?