<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"It happened again. No, not that. That never happens to me. I was stood up again. I&amp;amp;#8217;ll spare you the details, but my night became chasing the dog in the snow instead of chasing her in a bar. These things happen (she overslept from a nap, something I, the king of naps, cannot hold against her), but my beef isn&amp;amp;#8217;t really with her, it&amp;amp;#8217;s with those sexy, vexing texts.The fact is, we never actually spoke. Well, we&amp;#x27;ve spoken at some point, when she and I met, but this entire date had not been set up in person, or over the phone, or even by email, but over texts on our Blackberrys (Blackberry messenger, or bbm, to be specific). Should I really be surprised? He&amp;#x27;s got the right idea--last time he tattooed his email on her ankle. On the same day, Ashton Kutcher took to Twitter to offer his respects to his recently departed ex and co-star, Brittany Murphy. Now I don&amp;amp;#8217;t doubt Mr. Kutcher is legitimately grieved, nor do I wish to glamorize the death of a celebrity (albeit a cool one--&amp;amp;#8220;Rolling With the Homies&amp;amp;#8221; will never play the same, and I should know, I had the soundtrack), but Twitter? Really? Yes it is an efficient way to reach his fans, and the press, without having to step in front of a camera, or a reporter, but--and here&amp;amp;#8217;s where my sad little story of textual abandonment relates--is there anything less one could do? And that&amp;amp;#8217;s the reason I think I was setting myself up for dismissal. My good friend Julia and I have a rule when we&amp;amp;#8217;re flirting with people: Get a number. No e-mail, no Facebook name, Skype nickname or pin for her BBM. If you have any interest in following up, exchange numbers so that you can have a conversation and make things real. Changing, or breaking plans becomes remarkably easier when we don&amp;amp;#8217;t have to see or talk to the person. And maybe that&amp;amp;#8217;s all for the better--perhaps someone who can write you off with a text is not for you, perhaps these communication technologies help separate the wheat from the chaff. But I prefer to keep it old school. This may happen again; I can&amp;amp;#8217;t do anything about that. But I won&amp;amp;#8217;t make the same mistake twice, or take the same risk (with both my time and energy). Next time, I&amp;amp;#8217;ll get a number. How does texting, emailing, bbm-ing and the rest mess with your dating life, or does it help you? More on technology and dating: * The DOs and DON&amp;#x27;Ts of Text-message Flirting * What His Facebook Profile Says About Him * The Post-date Text Message: When Do You Send It? More Ways to Get Glamour You could win $50,000 just for registering or logging in to Glamour.com! Sign up for Glamour.com&amp;#x27;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters! Add Glamour to your iGoogle homepage. Follow Glamour on Twitter. Photo: Jupiter Images; model is used for illustrative purposes only"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/single-ish/2009/12/dating-tips-get-that-number>