SMS wrongdoers confess their crimes

SMS text messages are becoming 'the coward's way out' for people who want to break bad news and make major announcements without potentially awkward face-to-face communication.

Tales of couples breaking up by SMS have become commonplace and this week we even saw the first documented instance of somebody allegedly being sacked by text message.

That particular tale brought the reader comments about similar incidents flooding in. One silicon.com reader told us: "I've had the great misfortune of being broken up with by a girlfriend a couple of years ago, who, after eight months decided to text me to tell me she did not think we would work out.

"When I tried to call her she wouldn't answer so I had to resort to text messaging to get a more full answer. After about 30 texts going back and forth she finally told me that 'I have slept with two other guys, does that make you happy?' via SMS. Nice. It was only topped by the fact that I was in the middle of university finals at the time."

While our sympathies were with that one reader, the next to contact us saved us any embarrassment by admitting he is more than aware that he is a prize-cad.

"One evening last year I was out with my now-ex-girlfriend at one of her family parties which all went swimmingly well.

"Being a family do it finished early so we moved onto another party that some friends in our local were having. The drink continued to flow, my balance started to wobble.

"The rest is rather blurry but I do remember not being the nicest of people, my girlfriend crying and me getting kicked out the door - allegedly for my own safety.

"As you can imagine this rather annoyed me! So I sent a text message to the girlfriend which read 'That's it were over, never loved you and never will anyway' which I am first to admit is pretty harsh! Funnily enough that was the end of that relationship!"

Shame on you, sir.

Finally an admission of a different kind. We're not too sure of the reasons for this texting tactic but we're pretty sure it's something which should have been done face-to-face.

"My girlfriend texted her mother to announce that she was pregnant and as such was going to make her mother a grandparent for the very first time."

Do you have a similar confession? We want to hear your best and worst text tales. Email editorial@silicon.com