What is ‘haunting’? Everything you need to know about the latest dating trend

Dating experts coined the name ‘haunting’, because it is super common around the world. According to a report in InStyle, OkCupid’s chief marketing officer and dating expert Melissa Hobley has described ‘haunting’ as exchanges which are “no meaningful interactions, just a lingering presence”.

“In this digital age, it’s not always as easy to cut ties,” she has been quoted as saying.

One can say that ‘haunting’ follows a breakup, or even ghosting. When a person you cut ties with, or one who ghosted you, strangely comes back to acknowledge your social media presence. It can be discomforting, but the real reason why one is ‘haunting’ another person, may never really be known.

If a person finds themselves “falling into haunting patterns”, they can do some digital detox. (Photo: Pixabay)

If it bothers someone, experts say they can begin by snapping social media ties with the person. They can ‘unfollow’ them on Instagram, for instance, and remove them from their ‘followers’ list, too. Conversely, if a person finds themselves “falling into haunting patterns”, they can do the same, and get some space. It could be a good detox.

Here are some other recent dating trends that made news, especially in the pandemic.

* FODA, or Fear Of Dating Again — A buzzword which had many takers in the pandemic, when life became uncertain everywhere. It stemmed from the fear of never being able to go back to normalcy, such as going bar-hopping with a potential date or having one-night-stands.

* Apocalypsing — It means to treat a relationship like it’s your last. Some people are of the opinion that the world is ending, so might as well consider a relationship to be the last thing ever.

* Paperclipping —  Illustrator Samantha Rothenberg used the famous Microsoft Word icon to describe a certain kind of flaky behaviour, wherein a person is not particularly interested in being romantically involved with another person, but they don’t want to be forgotten either. It is like they are neither in, nor out.

 

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A post shared by Samantha Rothenberg (@violetclair)

* Wokefishing — This one is downright terrible, because here, one pretends to have progressive views about many topics, just so they can get laid.

* Slow dating — Another pandemic consequence, slow-dating means to get to know a person through video dates first, before moving on to meeting them socially, in a Covid-safe set-up, of course.

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