What would Elvis Presley do today if he was sending his girlfriend a letter and
she rejected it? Would he send it e-mail, or Twitter? How would the song,
“Return to Sender” go today? “I am Tweeting my girlfriend one more time and if
my Tweet comes back to me then I will personally take my Tweet and put it in her
hand. If I don’t get a Tweet back then I guess I will understand the Tweeting is
over.”
The rejection today via cyber would be icy cold. Fast communication by just
hitting the send button and it’s over. A deleted account would be a cowardly and
swift way to break off a relationship.
For Elvis there would be no Special Delivery and no return mail. If Elvis was
communicating on Facebook would his girlfriend “delete him,” or “block him?”
Was it simpler and kinder during the days of mailing a letter and waiting in
anticipation that a romance was still ongoing or would the rejection today be
dreadful coming back cyber? The ‘letter’ would take on a different twist when it
comes back electronically with “no such address,” “no such person,” “no such
account,” or “no result for.” It would be like she disappeared off the face of
the Earth.
Elvis would have no envelope to hold in his hand staring at a big stamp from the
post office “Return to Sender,” instead he would be staring at a monitor with a
cyber-rejection.
Have breakups become frigid in the modern era of the Internet?