What Is Toothing?

Toothing. It's what you've been doing all along, but you didn't know it. No, we're not talking about tooting your own horn. We're talking about using Bluetooth technology to send unauthorized messages to other local devices for sexual flirtation. It's a practice that some may be familiar with and known to be fictional, but toothing is a real possibility. It has likely been attempted by multiple individuals with devices that support Bluetooth. Generally, toothing occurs when two people are close to one another in a public setting, like a coffee shop or bus stop. One individual sends an unsolicited message to the other through their phone's Bluetooth feature. It can range from "hey" or "hi" to more explicit statements such as "I want to see you naked. " This practice has been around for several years, but it has only recently gained attention due to its prevalence in today's culture and media landscape. While some may consider this behavior inappropriate or offensive, others view it as harmless flirting that should be tolerated as long as there is mutual consent between the parties involved. We've seen a new phenomenon sweep the internet in the past few years: toothing. What is it? Well, that depends on whom you ask. Much of the news around the term "toothing" traces its origin to a hoax perpetuated by gaming journalists Ste Curran and Simon Byron in 2004 and 2005. These individuals created the idea of toothing out of thin air and started to promote it to journalists to see how seriously it would be taken. As a result, stories about the toothing phenomenon were printed, although they were not observed as occurring. Nowadays, there are many interpretations of what constitutes "toothing, from something as simple as a nod or head tilt in greeting when passing someone on the street or in transit. Up to an elaborate ritual involving several people following one another while engaging in coordinated eye contact with strangers (which has only been observed once). So what's real? What's fake? Who knows!