Breakups Web 2.0 Style

While discussing the finer aspects of Story2Oh! (a blog posting earlier this week is devoted to its premise), a conversation ensued regarding how stories - particularly relationship and breakup stories - are told using online means. Bloggers have been doing it for some time now, but this new breakup story still threw me for a loop.

Citizen Agency is an Internet consultancy business owned and run by Chris Messina and Tara Hunt, who were, until several days ago, also in a long-term relationship together. What is different about their breakup is not the fact that they ended their relationship, but rather that they chose to announce their split via their individual blogs Factory Joe and Horse Pig Cow. So why publicly share their breakup with the world? Chris explained it well:

"...telling everyone individually, or at the same time would have been impossible, so to avoid any confusion, we wanted to put out an official word from the source."

Kudos to the both of them for dealing with what must be a challenging and emotional situation with such tact and integrity. Still, I have to wonder if this is the/a new way of communicating a breakup to friends, family, coworkers and customers. Admittedly, it offers up a great way to formulate an explanation for the breakup without feeling emotional in face-to-face interactions.

What do you think about using a blog to tell your friends about a breakup? Would you do it? Why or why not?