These Are the Dating Trends Plenty of Fish Wants You to Know in the New Year
Plenty of Fish Unveils List of Ridiculous Dating Trends to Watch Out for in 2020
Plenty of Fish boasts that it has "coined" eight new dating terms for the upcoming year, but some of them are ... well, a stretch, to say the least.
The dating site's list includes supposedly new trends that were just aching to be named, like cause-playing, White Clawing and getting Kanye'd. According to their stats, a vast majority of singles are experiencing (or partaking in) these behaviors, so let's just dive in and you can be the judge.
RELATED: Best Online Dating Sites
Have you ever had a casual relationship that just sort of fizzled out over time? You probably connected with the person on social media and then never removed them from your friends list when you parted ways. Now, months or maybe even years down the line, they're back to ask you for a favor, like donating to their kickstarter or supporting their friend's charity. That's cause-playing and more than 60 percent of singles say they've experienced this odd, sometimes selfish, sometimes well-intentioned behavior in one way or another.
RELATED: Stashing, Vulturing, and Other Dating Trends You Should Know
If you've ever dated someone and pretended to like their varied interests and hobbies, only to find yourself developing a genuine interest in those activities, PoF says you've fallen victim to eclipsing. Maybe a little dishonest at the heart of it, but it could also just be a decent and natural way to broaden your horizons, learn new things and share experiences with your partner.
Along the same lines of faking a relationship (until it inevitably does not make it), PoF gives us the term White Clawing. This is when you continue to date an attractive person even though you find them boring, which, in the long run, really isn't of any benefit to either one of you. Like this unfulfilling relationship, the popularity of the trendy, alcoholic White Claw beverage is sure to fizzle out in time, leaving this term completely dated and useless.
Speaking of out-of-date terms, do we actually need a name for ghosting someone before a relationship even begins? Probably not, but PoF is trying to make dial-toning happen anyway. This one seems particularly off-key since no one under the age of 25 has probably ever even heard a dial-tone, and with Gen Z being the biggest users of at least one well known dating app, we imagine this term will itself be a self-fulfilling prophecy and die before it even has the chance to take off.
Anyway, back to us and the super important things we're talking about it. You've probably gotten Kanye'd before, or even been the Kanye yourself. It's when one person spends the entire date talking exclusively about themselves, and 45 percent of singles say it's happened to them. (Given the accurate depiction, if feels like this trend has a bit more staying power.)
RELATED: All the Online Dating Slang Terms Out There, Explained
To round out PoF's list, they've given us type-casting, the act of dating someone exclusively based on their Myers-Briggs personality type or "Love Language." Then there's yellow carding — or calling someone out on their poor dating etiquette — yet only 27 percent of singles admit that they've actually done this. And finally, we have glamboozled, where you get dressed and psych yourself up for your date just to have them cancel on you at the last minute. Rude? Yes. But did we need a specific name for it? Not really.
So thanks (we guess?) to Plenty of Fish ... we're totally going to use all of these terms in the new year. Totally. (... dial tone …)
You Might Also Dig: