There is nothing more classless or cowardly than a text message breakup. Facebook and Myspace breakups apply as well. I want the world to know that clicking a few buttons and pushing “Send” will never substitute mutual, face-to-face conversation between a couple at a time when communication is most needed.

Technology is great for college life, but there should be a law against initiating a breakup through the Internet or a rushed text message.

I understand there are circumstances in which people date sociopaths and need a more practical, less fatal method of leaving them.

However, there are those of us who are too passive-aggressive or unevolved to value not only relationships but friendships as well.

How appropriate I find myself quoting “Chicago,” a musical about women who kill their husbands, in which a song asks, “Whatever happened to class?”

I am not suggesting we kill our unsatisfactory lovers and sing a clever, little jingle about it in prison. That’s not class – that’s homicide.

Someone with class doesn’t text the boyfriend or girlfriend, “Sorry, but it’s not working out.” They arrange a meeting, and initiate an age-old thing we adults call conversation.

Human emotion is complicated, tactile and heavily if not completely diluted through messages sent via phone or computer.

No one wants to read, “I don’t have feelings for you,” when they sign onto Facebook or check their phone.

Bear witness to your struggle finding the right words. You will learn firsthand how to find a resolution instead of the “Send” button.

Choppy sentences on a screen cannot convey closure and prepare you for your next relationship.

People who copy and paste their finals have the same philosophy. Whether or not they get a good grade, they’re not learning. They’re technically failures.

I was in a relationship this summer that turned out to be incompatible. I thought, “How easy it would be to say how I feel in an endearing message?” Then I thought, “That would be excruciatingly lame of me.”

Instead, we went for a drive one day and he asked if I had noticed that after months of dating, neither of us seemed ready or equipped to say, “I love you.”

The rest of the conversation came naturally, not in anger or with an ounce of negativity. We agreed we wouldn’t last long-term, that distance would only add to the strain.

Passing the trees, hearing the cicadas and speaking about our feelings was good for us.

He joked about wanting to send me a Facebook message to break up, telling me he felt it would have been awful if he had.

Freshman Elizabeth Wales had a different experience,”I got a notification from my phone, and I knew it wasn’t good when it said, ‘I just want to be honest with you. I’m sorry,’ and then I got on Facebook. I read the message and I went numb. He broke up with me on Facebook? On Facebook!”

Where can two people go after one of them expresses such indifference for the other’s feelings?

Time spent together would have become a prelude to the self-satisfying apathy in each and every backhanded method of telling a person it’s over.

There are some situations in which a well-written letter is the best route to sharing the news, but people in most cases deserve more consideration.

Even if you feel that friendship won’t be possible after the separation, make a gesture as an adult and treat the situation with class instead of immaturity.

“Nobody’s got no class!” goes the “Chicago” song. I love the film but I disagree.

We’re not in high school anymore. Every day we interact with people, learn about them while developing internally and grow up together.

And all that jazz.

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