In a QWERTY World: Love

Ever try texting this?
"I never knew till that moment, the madness of -- my dearest & most beloved friend -- I cannot express myself -- this is no time for words -- but I shall have a pride, a melancholy pleasure, in suffering what you yourself can hardly conceive -- for you don not know me. -- I am now about to go out with a heavy heart..."- Lord Byron

From Lord Byron's passionate plea to Lady Caroline to J.D. Salinger's love letters to his "Buddyroo", we have come through the ages with our thoughts of love scribbled on pieces of paper. These love letters were kept close to the heart of the receiver, until the writer passed away and had no say in their publication. Now in the last decade we have seen the convenience of digital mash notes come back to haunt us while we are still walking this earthly plain.

Today we send hundreds of texts, chats and email messages that float endlessly in the digital jetsam and flotsam. We let them go without giving a thought of their longevity. Do we give any thought of our most personal digital thoughts and their lifespan? A piece of paper will degrade or be shredded in a moment of frenzy, but an email will live forever in a cloud of 0101s.

I <3 U.
Well you do now, but what if it all goes wrong? There are blogs and websites devoted to love gone bad, your messages of love could end up there, courtesy of a spurned lover or a friend of a spurned lover who sent a mass email of the "best of".

"Hey they are just like me!"
Google CEO Eric Schmidt couldn't escape the wrath of an ex-girlfriend, she used Google's Blogger to post her affair with Schmidt.
And in this week alone we have been inundated with the text messages of wandering celebrity husbands. None of the messages would pass muster with an fourth grade English teacher, salacious and to the point, they declare their love/lust in 140 characters or less. To the obscene to the absurd, these messages pass for proclamations of deep love in our times. To the horror of the senders, we now know their deepest and most common proclivities that they share with most men and women.

However, celebrity or just person on the street, we are all open to the prospect of having our most inner thoughts and needs spread across the internet. All it takes is a simple movement of one finger to push "Send". Its not "How could they do that?" its "Will they do that?", because no one is kind enough to wait until you are pushing daisies to release your inner most thoughts. We are creatures of instant gratification, we want to see the rippling effect in our lifetime, or at least today in our Facebook updates.

My only word of advice is, if you really love someone send a Hallmark card or use that creaky old thing called a land line to say "I love you".

I just called to say I love you
I just called to say how much I care
I just called to say I love you
And I mean it from the bottom of my heart
- "I Just Called To Say I Love You"
Stevie Wonder

Image: Ophelia Chong /Love