- guardian.co.uk, Sunday October 8 2006 00.42 BST
- The Observer, Sunday October 8 2006
Mobile phones are the glue holding the fashionable relationship together. Texting - not talking - has become the modern way for lovers to communicate even when they are standing right next to each other. Witness the celebrity pap text scene, when a famous couple avoid eye contact, communicating with their thumbs as the cameras flash ahead. Just because they're not talking does not mean they're not texting ... each other.
When a relationship gets serious, a phone is the essential tool for love. As well as offering a comforting night-time glow, predictive text adds colour to a new fling. Smirnoff, pre-click, reads as 'poisoned', while a request to 'kick' your new love's 'andy' can be decoded to erotic effect. Plus it is archives of sent messages that now serve as loving reminders of a relationship's salad days rather than a few sad photos from Snappy Snaps.
