Text messages open portal to men's hearts

Technology has freed New Zealand blokes to share their feelings, as sweet nothings can now be texted to a beloved, taking away any embarrassment of buying a Valentine card.

"Text messaging means guys can send little love messages to their girlfriends without being shamed in front of their mates," Telecom's head of mobile marketing Kevin Bowler said.


"Our research shows that many couples are sending upwards of 20 messages a day to each other, as the privacy of text allows the normally taciturn Kiwi male to share his feelings."

Mr Bowler said the most common message sent between couples was a quick "thinking of you" text, which is often kept and re-read like the love letter of old.

But alongside the rise of the text romance comes a warning of a new phenomenon uncovered by the research: text cheating.

"Research subjects admitted to changing the names in their mobile phone address book, so that 'Jane' becomes 'Jake', for example," Mr Bowler said. "Girlfriends won't be suspicious of text messages arriving from 'Jake'."

Valentine's Day is a heavy text volume day for Telecom, he said, and last year more than six million texts were sent.

- NZPA