7 Toxic Dating Trends To Keep An Eye Out For While Searching For 'The One'

Dating is a growing culture in India, as millennials and Gen Zers believe in testing the waters before committing themselves to a relationship. Dating can be a beautiful journey to discover yourself and your partner. However, as new dating trends emerge, including toxic ones, the dating landscape has become more challenging.

With many dating apps and social networks available to connect, it’s relatively easier to find people but tricky to find the right one. Fraudsters are quick to learn new technologies and catch up on new trends to hunt down their prey. Relationships can be complicated, especially in the beginning, and with the constant evolution of toxic trends, it's always better to be vigilant.

7 Toxic Dating Trends To Keep An Eye Out For While Searching For 'The One'

Whilst you're on the journey of finding the right partner, here are some of the latest toxic dating trends to look out for so that you stay away from the toxic kind.

Phubbing

Phubbing, a blend of "phone" and "snubbing," might seem like a harmless act at first glance. However, research suggests it has deeper, more damaging implications. Studies have increasingly shown that frequent phubbing is linked to unhappiness in relationships and can foster feelings of distrust and social exclusion. 

A notable study published in Computers in Human Behaviour examined this seemingly trivial behaviour, where someone checks their phone while another person is speaking.  When someone is ignored in favour of a smartphone, they begin to perceive the "phubber" in a negative light, leading to misunderstandings and resentment.

In today’s hyper-connected world, phubbing might sound normal, but in romantic relationships, phubbing can introduce additional layers of pain, especially when one partner feels they must compete for the other's attention. This dynamic can lead to feelings of inadequacy and insecurity, as the ignored partner may question their worth or the strength of the relationship. 

Prowling

Prowling is one of the latest trends in dating, where the person of interest is flying in and out of your life as and when they like. One day they are completely invested in the relationship, taking you out on expensive dates, buying you lavish gifts, and making long-term future plans, and then, poof, they vanish into thin air. No visits, no calls, no messages—they just disappear without a trace. Just when you think it’s over and get ready to move on in life, they make a grand re-entry and want to resume from where they left off. There are no apologies or explanations for going MIA on you; they expect you to act like nothing happened.

Breadcrumbing

Breadcrumbing is a form of emotional manipulation where the person of interest actually has no intention of committing to a relationship with you. However, they just feed you enough crumbs of attention like calls, texts, or date plans every now and then to keep you on the hook. And then, when you realise it might not work out and begin distancing yourself, they shower you with a lot of attention until they manage to trick you into believing that there’s something.

Kittenfishing

This is perhaps something that’s been happening for a very long time. Kittenfishing is when the person of interest fabricates fake information about themselves in order to make themselves look more appealing. They would probably use an old photograph, a photoshopped picture of themselves, or write an intriguing fake gist about themselves in the bio. They exaggerate their personalities to seem likeable, but they are far from whatever they have mentioned.

Throning

Throning is another third-rated toxic dating trend where the person of interest is only with you because it improves their social status. For instance, being in a relationship with a public figure because they are famous will boost your reputation. To them, you actually don’t matter. What matters is your fame. This is in a way similar to gold-digging, which is for money, and throning, which is for social status.

Zombieing

Zombieing is a new term that is related to ghosting. While ghosting means the person of interest disappears from your life without any notice, zombieing is when that person comes back out of the blue. The person could be your former partner or someone you casually dated. They might have completely ghosted you, unfollowed you on social media, deleted your contact, gotten rid of your memories, etc. But then, one fine day, they just resurface from the dead and walk into your life. You, on the other hand, would have just gotten over them with great difficulty, but they just insensitively spring back into your life.

Mirroring

Mirroring is when the person of interest claims to have exactly similar interests to you in order to make themselves appear to be the perfect match for you. While this might be true and you might really find someone who shares a lot of common interests with you, it could also be a manipulative method to make you like them. This one is a little tricky, so you need to keep an eye out to see if it seems to be way too good to be true.