Noting the growing number of long distance relationships and the primarily digital communications channels that sustain them, Irish designer Colm Keller has created a digital heirloom set which can act as a beautiful physical anchor for sharing experience.

Relatious is a micro-blogging site for all aspects of relationships.

Looking to create better communications channels for families who live far from each other, Mimi Son, a designer from the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design has created the “Here and There” diary object.

Behance is a company that organizes the creative world to make ideas happen. Every Wednesday, Behance shares 5 fresh art and design projects from their network with PSFK.

This week, we came across the NYT Magazine article uncovering the growing subculture of “2-D Lovers“, grown adults in Japan that have found romantic love with their favorite characters from anime, manga, and video games. The article considers the possible cultural forces propelling the trend – namely, “the difficulty many young Japanese have in navigating modern romantic life”. The article reports that more than a quarter of Japanese between 30 and 34 are virgins while 50 percent of men and women don’t even have opposite sex friends. For some, it seems 2-D love may be the only way to experience [...]

Distance Lab is a group of “fearless researchers” dedicated to overcoming the disadvantages of distance using digital media technologies. They’ve created an intriguing romantic communication environment called Mutsugoto that’s meant to connect distant couples using light drawings.
They explain:
Mutsugoto is an intimate communication device intended for a bedroom environment. Instead of exchanging e-mail or SMS messages using generic interfaces in business-like venues, Mutsugoto allows distant partners to communicate through the language of touch as expressed on the canvas of the human body. A custom computer vision and projection system allows users to draw on each other’s bodies while lying in bed. [...]

Justin Wehr points us to an interesting graph that displays the current popularity status of dating websites. It seems that the “casual” one night stand market is booming (though primarily made up of men), while the wholesome marriage sector attracts less attention.
Globe and Mail: “One Click Stands”

We’ve seen technology facilitate the beginning of relationships (and even marriage proposals) many times before. Francis Anderson points us to a curious example of a couple breaking up in real time over Twitter. Their status updates very publicly detail the breakdown and back and forth they go through as the situation spirals downward.
Anderson explains:
“Last night I had the strangely compelling but deeply awkward experience of watching someone liveblogging the end of his relationship via twitter. You can watch the action from the bottom in the screengrab below… I find the progression, the unfolding to be very striking… as well, of [...]

Is internet addiction hitting ludicrous new highs, or is the “net” such an ingrained part of our lives, that living without it is tantamount to starvation? A recent report shows that at the very least, people would forgo the pleasures of physical contact rather than temporarily lose access to the info-deluge. According to a recent Intel study, many people would rather give up sex for two weeks than stay off the internet for the same amount of time. The survey of over 2000 adults showed that 48 percent of women and 30 percent of men prefer the internet to sex.
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