Ain’t love tweet!

How some Web 2.0 couples make I Love Yous work in 140 characters or less.  This is a cool article for Valentines Day in the  The Globe and Mail: Personal Tech: The couple that tweets together, stays together by Dakshana Bascaramurty.

While I wait for my boxes of Sweethearts to arrive via twitter on Valentine’s Day  (don’t forget to sent them to me) I couldn’t think of a better way to communicate when not together, yes, social media has definitely penetrated almost every part of the social scene.

Might just follow@gradontripp,@megfowler or @gremanda and see what the latest is?

Article:The Globe and Mail: Personal Tech: The couple that tweets together, stays together.

Some men might stifle the impulse to whip out their smart phones on a dinner date to message a friend or snap a photo of their duck confit.

Gradon Tripp isn’t one of them.

In fact, photographing entrées and texting is standard fare for Mr. Tripp, 33, when he’s out for dinner with his girlfriend at Gaslight, his favourite French bistro in Boston. She doesn’t mind, he says – probably because when he’s clacking away on his Android, she’s doing the same on her iPhone.

Welcome to relationships in the 2.0 era, where gadgets and social media have penetrated almost every part of the dating scene. While conservative etiquette experts cluck their tongues at those who tweet their anniversary dinner orders or express their love in 140-character bursts, the wider public is slowly accepting the integration of modern technology in relationships. Some are even embracing it.

Two lovebirds who have been riding the social media wave are Greg Verdino, 41, and Amanda Gravel, 24, who call themselves “America’s Tweethearts.” They have a joint Twitter account based on a mashup of their names (@gremanda) as well as a joint blog (gremanda.com). They jokingly call their 140+ followers on their joint Twitter account “grefandas.”

Their blog is filled with photographs of the beaming couple on vacation or lounging in their Long Island, N.Y., apartment. Their tweets relate their everyday activities: new year’s eve is just another gremanda date night. that’s a good thing. but with an open bar. also a good thing.

While Mr. Tripp (@gradontripp) and his girlfriend Meg Fowler may not have reached the celeb-moniker stage quite yet, they certainly have followers of their own.

A few weeks ago, Mr. Tripp and Ms. Fowler were nominated in the Best Couple category for the Shorty Awards, which were established in 2009 to recognize “the best producers of real-time, short form content on Twitter.”

The two met on Twitter, and regularly send affectionate tweets to one another that are viewable by the more than 8,500 followers they have between the two of them. They’d been flirting so openly for months that few were surprised when they came out as a couple two years ago, Mr. Tripp says.

“There have been ‘Why don’t you two get a room?’ comments” he chuckles. “The biggest response we get is from our friends and random followers – [that] we are the sweetest couple that [they’ve] seen.”

Greg Galant, co-founder of the Shorty Awards, says society’s hunger for details about relationships in the public sphere is only partly sated by paparazzi photos. With Twitter, he says, “It’s like viewing into someone’s diary and how their relationship unfolds.”

Mr. Verdino, well aware of this fascination, says many of the tweets from the @gremanda account are meant to be tongue-in-cheek shout-outs to his followers.

“As stupid as it seems, we have some fanboys and fangirls,” he says with a laugh. “Sometimes we’ll deliberately post things that are a little bit edgy just to get someone to give us a Twitter groan.’”

Ms. Gravel suggests some might be captivated by her relationship for the same reasons they’re drawn to reality TV.

The trend on social media, she says, “is not just to share, but to see what other people are doing – to get that voyeuristic look into the window of other people’s lives.”

Paul McEnany, a Toronto marketing strategist, has followed Gremanda online for two years.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s offline or online – everyone knows the couple that’s cutesy and love-dovey,” Mr. McEnany says. Friends with the pair in “real life,” he says he follows their joint account because “it’s cutesy and it’s funny.”

Rachel Wilkerson, a writer for TechCoquette, a blog that explores the intricacies of flirting and relationships in the digital world, says people seem far more accepting of lovey-dovey posts on Twitter versus Facebook because on the former, your audience has actively chosen to follow you.

“On Facebook … it’s obnoxious, it’s invasive,” she says. “But on Twitter … there’s less obligation to follow someone than accept a friend request.”

Of course, the love-struck techies have their detractors.

Last November, just a second after Dana Hanna and his betrothed had been pronounced husband and wife in a Joppa, Md., church, he whipped out his smart phone. He updated his Facebook relationship status to “married” and tweeted (@TheSoftwareJedi): Standing at the altar with @TracyPage where just a second ago, she became my wife! Gotta go, time to kiss my bride. #weddingday (Editor’s Note: @TracyPage has since switched her handle to @TracyMarieHanna)

He also posted a video clip of the act on YouTube, which racked up more than a million views – and inspired harsh critiques on blogs and social networks.

Etiquette guru Lizzie Post from the Emily Post Institute says phones and laptops should always be stowed away during one-on-one face time.

“I don’t understand why a lot of couples feel the need to interrupt their personal time with each other for tweeting,” she says. “Tweet about it afterward.”

As tech-obsessed as he and Ms. Gravel are, Mr. Verdino says they know when to draw the line – both when it comes to playing with their gadgets, and broadcasting their relationship online.

“We’re not tethered to our devices,” Mr. Verdino says. “We’ve found that we’ve settled in on an acceptable level of connectivity.”

As for Mr. Tripp, he also says there are limits to how far he’d go with technology in his relationship.

“There are certain times where you have to be present and in the moment,” he says. “I’m not going to be like @megfowler, hey, would you marry me?”