Many of today’s crazes or fads are more about expression than anything else. Never before have humans been so free and able to share themselves with the world. Facebook and Twitter have gone beyond crazes and are now default forms of expression.

Telling 400 of your friends what you had for breakfast or that you're disgusted by the latest interest rate rise is as easy as a click or two of a mouse.

But what about romance? Are the romantics of the world happy enough with status updates to confess their undying love? After all, we seem to be on Facebook more than we are with our partners, so you could be mistaken for forgetting how it feels to say “I love you” in person.

Romance has always had an old school charm about it, but it seems not even the social networking monster can kill the cupid within us.

I’m talking about romance in its purest form, where it is not measured by status updates or how much we spend, but by gestures and symbols. 

Inspired by the novel Ho Voglia De Te (I Want You) by Federico Moccia, young lovers the world over are stepping away from their laptops and expressing their love with nothing more than a padlock.

Couples eager to substantiate their love are fixing padlocks inscribed with their initials to bridges and then tossing the key into the water.

The ‘love padlock craze’ started in Italy, promptly after the book was released in 2006, as Venice's Ponte del Academia became a slave to more than 300 padlocks.

In Moccia's book, the main character swears eternal love by attaching a padlock to Rome's Milvio Bridge before throwing the key into the Tiber.

An in a sign that romance is still alive and well, Venice’s 16th century Rialto has been swamped with so many padlocks it is causing structural damage.

Like Facebook, the padlock craze has not only survived, but evolved into a form of romantic expression all over the globe.

The fad has even reached Australian shores with Sea Cliff Bridge on the NSW South Coast becoming a magnet for hundreds of padlocks of varying shapes, sizes and colours.

And it seems in true romantic Australian spirit, we aren’t too fussed if padlocks invade our landmarks.

Wollongong Council media spokesman, Lachlan Harris, said "We take the view it’s harmless, if it’s an impediment we need to remove then we would do something”.

"We also have some on Mt Keira lookout - they're harmless. I see them there and I presume people who come along and profess their undying love, put the padlock on then throw the keys away it’s like having a tattoo."

Some fads are just that, like Tamagotchi and ‘planking’ they come and go in an instant. They do so because they are replaced with something better.

And although Facebook looks destined to stay, a world where expression hides behind the computer screen will never defeat the old school charm of a romantic gesture.