Internet Proposals: Hot or Not?

Yesterday, Cincinnati man Greg Hill proposed to his girlfriend via Groupon.com, a coupon-buying website. A week and a half ago, a guy proposed to a woman named Breeze via Facebook — apparently his mom told him he’d better make the proposal good, as his dad proposed to her while she was washing the dishes. How Facebook is an upgrade, I am not sure, and apparently neither was Breeze, who began her (affirmative) answer by saying, “Facebook? Really!” Tracy Clark-Flory over at Salon.com lists a few other internet proposals that used Twitter, YouTube, and Foursquare as a high-tech Hermes. A guy I know live-blogged his engagement, from the time he sat down at the restaurant until after she accepted the ring.

Although people have been making lame proposals for years — my favorite is this fast-food gem — there might be something especially sad trombone about using the web to pop the question. Where is the planning? Where is the nervousness and sweat and fretting about forgetting the ring at home? Maybe I was raised on rom-coms and unicorn dreams, but I think the loveliest proposals are not necessarily the most complicated, but they’re at least the most thoughtful: Taking your love to the place you met (or enjoyed together) and getting down on one knee is always a pro move. I mean, this adorable, determined fellow spent what I imagine was hours (if not days) hacking a video game to propose to his special lady, for crying out loud!

I say bring back the Jumbotron and skywriting proposals. Because although those are clichéd to the max, at least they take more effort than double-clicking a Firefox icon.

But more importantly, what do you think? Let me know via the poll below.