The latest craze in England, "toothing", uses high-tech gear to find the oldest form of entertainment.
British commuters are putting a novel twist on Bluetooth technology, using a trick of the Bluetooth protocol to send anonymous messages to nearby users known as "Bluejacking". They're using it to flirt and find partners for casual sexual encounters.
The variant of Bluejacking used by "Toothers" takes advantage of the fact that a user can send a business card or other contact to any Bluetooth device, even an unpaired but discoverable device, and most devices will display the contact's name and prompt the receiving user what to do with it. "Toothing" involves sending a contact with some tag line in the name field, such as "toothing?", with an SMS number to any nearby discoverable devices. Other Toothers who recognize the message and feel like chatting may respond over SMS or with another Bluetooth contact.
From that point on the exchange becomes a typical SMS conversation, only with a random but nearby stranger. While anonymous sexual encounters are by no means the only possible outcome of such a meeting, they appear to be the main attraction for many. Naturally, high-tech devices is another potential topic of conversation. The small but growing toothing community advises caution and protection for those Toothers who do choose to engage in toothing-related trysts.
The fad has begun to spread to other countries besides Great Britain, although many would-be Toothers have commented that it has been slow to catch on in the United States due to the limited availability of Bluetooth-enabled handsets. Whether the fad will be popular enough to considerably increase demand for Bluetooth devices in the US is still unclear.
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