2022 has it’s own modern day dating terms and if you’re seeing someone, you must know how to speak the language of 2022, courtesy social media. And while I can easily say that my life can be explained in a bunch of emoji’s, bumper stickers and texts, the modern day dating terms have their own rules and vocabulary.
Worried that you might get ghosted on your way to being soft launched? Haha!
These are some of the modern day dating terms that you need to learn in 2022.
Wokefishing
Wokefishing happens when someone portrays themselves as more progressive than they are, usually on social media, in order to impress others or simply because they aren’t as well-versed on the issues as they believe themselves to be. Derived from Catfishing which means when someone assumes a false identity or personality online.
Cuffing
Cuffing means when you partner up with someone during a certain season. Sounds weird right, but it’s true. For eg. you date someone in the Winter season and when it transitions into Spring, the relationship fizzles out. I guess a lot of you out there are guilty of cuffing, aren’t you?
Love Bombing
When someone bombs you with extreme displays of love and affection, along with gifts and ah! compliments. It’s kind of a honeymoon phase where everything’s lovely for a change, but remember everything usually does go downhill since it’s generally a symptom of romantic ideation and other unhealthy behaviours. It’s worth noting that love bombing is a tactic commonly employed by literal cult leaders and abusive partners.
Orbiting
Orbiting is like the new term for ghosting someone. This one is a very 2021-appropriate term coined by The New York Times. It’s the all-too-common phenomenon of a person following you, liking your posts, maybe even engaging in a little cyber flirt, but never actually taking their suggestive behaviour out of the realm of social media — i.e. orbiting you but never taking it further.
Breadcrumbing
When you’re leading someone on without wanting to have something meaningful, you’re breadcrumbing. They engage in occasional chats and messages, and they might even flirt, but they don’t intend to actually pursue a relationship. If anything, they might just be in it for the ego boost.
The metaphor of breadcrumbing might remind you of Hansel and Gretel—and the trail of crumbs they left behind—and that’s exactly what this term references. Someone is leaving just enough of a trail to string you along. They may disguise it as an attempt to “stay friends”, but it’s mostly a cocktail of ego-boosting and boredom. Word to the wise: block them!
Pocketing
When someone keeps their partner separated from the rest of their lives, pocketing occurs most frequently at the beginning of a relationship. IIt’s like you’re being kept as a secret. So they don’t want to shout out from their rooftops about their new relationship, but regardless of the reason, it’s safe to say no one wants to feel like they’ve been tucked away like loose change.
Benching
When someone keeps you around for just enough attention and communication with you and use you when the times comes. Basically it’s like keeping a romantic partner just close enough in case you’re dating someone else and that doesn’t workout so you go to them. So you are benched. People do it without realizing it and this is definitely a red flag.
Fauc-ing
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, became a household name during the pandemic. He’s so well known, in fact, that he inspired his own dating slang. Fauci-ing is the act of turning down a date because someone isn’t taking the pandemic seriously enough. The term is believed to have been coined by the dating app Plenty of Fish, and it’s gotten so popular that Axios asked Dr. Fauci about it in February 2021. He found it hilarious.
Roaching
It’s an unwritten rule that if you see one cockroach, there are probably more lurking in the dark. That’s where the dating term roaching comes from. It’s described as roaching if a person you’re dating is hiding the fact that they’re involved with multiple other people at the same time. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with keeping it casual or seeing multiple people if that’s what’s been agreed upon. What makes it roaching is the fact that it’s happening in secret. The person might even play it off like they’re only seeing one person. Maybe it’s time to exterminate that connection.
Groundhogging
When you fall for the same type of person over and over again, it means you’re groundhogging. They are drawn to the people who fit their ‘ideal’ type, date them, but end up feeling underwhelmed, or experiencing the same old issues — shocking! And when things go sour, we’re right back on those apps, swiping the same profiles — and the cycle resumes.
Zombie-ing
If ghosting is the disappearing act, zombie-ing is the opposite. Just as how zombies rise from the dead, zombie-ing happens when a person who has ghosted you randomly returns to your life as if nothing ever happened. This is nothing short of cruel and we recommend blocking them permanently.
