Dating is so much different today than it was even 10 years ago and in honour of Halloween this week I wanted to talk about some scary new dating trends that have emerged with the rise of dating apps and hookup culture; ghosting and zombieing.

These dating trends are as scary as they sound because they’re basically emotional warfare. Ghosting is when you’re dating someone and then you literally never hear from them again. I’m going to be honest; if somebody ghosted me I would assume that they’re dead. Ghosting is more likely to happen with someone that you met online or though an app because you don’t have any mutual connections, you don’t have to worry about seeing the person you ghosted at a birthday party in a month. They feel comfortable ditching you because they know you won’t have to have any awkward conversations when you run into each other.

Ghosting always did happen to some degree however it has become a lot more common in the past 5 years. Ghosting can happen at any point in a relationship and whether you’ve been dating for a week or 3 months it’s a huge bummer. People who ghost are afraid of confrontation and would rather do anything else than have an uncomfortable conversation with you. If someone is planning on ghosting you, you may notice them texting you less and giving one word answers. If you do call them out on this behaviour they’ll just brush it off, because again, they don’t like confrontation. If you’ve been seeing someone and you think it’s time to stop, please do everyone a favour and actually tell them, even if it’s by text message it’s better than not saying anything at all and having them wonder.

The dating trend that’s worse than ghosting; zombieing!

Zombieing is almost the exact same dating trend as ghosting, except the person who disappeared comes back to terrorize you a few weeks later. They’re usually come back into your life with a message from beyond the grave; generally of the “you up?” variety. Unless they have a REALLY good reason for disappearing on you (which they almost never do) you need to run from zombies. Zombies are aptly named; they’re only looking for flesh.

Now my single friends, go out and enjoy all the Halloween festivities to your heart’s content! Maybe meet a few unicorns and knights in shining armor along the way, but beware of the ghosts and zombies! Have you been ghosted and want to chat about it? Book a date coaching session today!

Happy Halloween from Single in the City!