Rich Trenholm

Friday 24 October 2008, 11:33am

Love in 140 characters: It's 2.0mance

2.0mance: n. A real-world romantic liaison supplemented by online communication tools, between two geeks. Hot geeks.

When Sean Bonner said to his girlfriend Tara Brown "So, um... wanna get hitched?" and she replied "helllzzzzz yes!", it wasn't just the happy couple rejoicing. For the proposal took place on Twitter -- and it wasn't even the first (presumably Bonner had already Facebooked Brown Sr: "Icanhas daughter's hand in mrrge plz? kthx"). It's the latest thing for the digital native: flirt on Facebook, tease on Twitter, blow kisses through blogs. Romance is so 20th century: this is 2.0mance.

In some ways these relationships are pretty similar to how it's always been done: meet, flirt a bit, start seeing each other. But it's also different in a few 2.0mantic ways. Communication is vital in any relationship, and the connected courtship makes extensive use of online flirting. Aside from text, email and IM (or maybe even phoning each other -- as long as the voicemail goes through Spinvox), 2.0mantics can follow each other on Twitter, scrawl on social network walls, and share links as well as boring old feelings. And you get to bring a more positive meaning to relationships in which you play games with each other.

All this might sound weird to the Web-challenged, but geeks are sexy now (according to people familiar with the matter). And that great feeling of seeing your significant other turning heads as they cross the room while only having eyes for you? Hey, it's even better if they're showing the whole world how cool, smart and funny they are too.

A note of caution though, before you give the password to your heart away: you never know when the 2.0mance bubble could burst...

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