Following in the tradition of Phil Collins, who reputedly divorced his wife using a fax machine, today’s generation are using technology to end their romances.

Some 15 per cent of Brits admit to having been ditched over email or via text message according to a moneysupermarket.com survey reported on Reuters.

"Most of us send emails and texts everyday, so it comes as no surprise they are now being used to ditch someone, however distasteful this is," said Rob Barnes from moneysupermarket.com.

"The results show one per cent of the population would use a social networking site to dump a partner. It would be interesting to see how this changes as sites such as Facebook and MySpace become more apparent in our everyday lives."

Disturbingly, four per cent of the 2,194 people questioned in the survey confessed to breaking off all contact with their lovers without any notice at all.