Or by email (if you still use it), or a Facebook message, or even worse, a tweet. Ouch! If this sounds mean enough, then, remember that Katie Holmes and Rupert Murdoch did not even do any of this; they first hired an army of lawyers to start the divorce proceedings, and while Holmes did make a brief call to Tom Cruise, Murdoch is such a narcissist that he let his attorneys do the talking and they were the ones who told Wendi Deng that she was basically being thrown out of the life of a rich, old man.
Breakup after short-term, casual relationship: In my opinion, if you are only casually dating someone and barely know each other, it is okay to breakup electronically (though it is still better to treat the other person with respect and do it in person). Still, a text message is mean, because you do not get the chance to say much. I would say that take some time to compose a short, sweet message explaining what you are doing and say some good things about her or him (after all if you two did not have good feelings for each other you would not have been in a relationship in the first place). The reason for this approach is that you want to behave like a human being to a fellow human being and if you behave like a jerk (regardless of how mean the other person was), word will eventually get out and your reputation will be ruined — this may impact your dating prospects in the future.
Breakup after long term relationship: If you have been dating someone for months, have had a good relationship, or have been living together or have been married, unless there is so much hatred between the two of you that you cannot even speak on the phone or meet in person, it is best to give the news in person. Always speak of the good times that you had and how it is best for you to move on, either because something has changed or you have found another partner or you have concluded that it is best to go separate ways. Remember, it is the right thing to do because even if your partner hurt you, you still want to behave like a good person. Apparently, Russell Brand divorced Katy Perry via a text message on New Year’s Eve and after that never spoke to her again. Assuming that Katy Perry might be the worst woman in the universe, Brand still behaved inappropriately.