Online dating is tricky enough without the added worry of completely misconstruing what someone says to you. In 2020 however, the scene runs rampant with totally new words. But given that the dictionary surely hasn’t caught up with the dating world, we’ll lay some of the new vernacular out for you here. Like kittenfishing, stashing, and a few other weird words that are dominating dating lingo this year.
Kittenfishing
Kittens! So cute! So innocent! If you’ve been kittenfished that’s probably amazing, right? Um … no. This is basically a watered-down version of catfishing that involves dressing up one’s own life and lying about all sorts of things. Ancient pictures? Check. Faking interests to garner more attention? Yes. Fibbing about work and things they’ve done and editing pictures to make themselves look like they were in a fancy Parisian restaurant? All of the above. This heavily edited version of the person probably sounds incredible, but it really just screams low self-esteem.
Stashing
This just sounds unpleasant. And, well, it is. Who wants to be stashed away? That’s precisely what it means — your so-called love interest doesn’t share even a hint of your presence with the outside world. No pictures of you on their social media pages. No hanging out with their friends or meeting their family. Yep, you’ve been stashed while they continue to play the field. The sooner you recognize this behavior, the sooner you can ditch these kind of losers for good.
Haunting
If you’ve been ghosted, you might eventually be haunted too. The coward who couldn’t say goodbye properly has the nerve to continue to stalk you on social media, usually by peeping your stories on Instagram or accidentally liking your posts. Haunting is kind of lame, but at least they can see that you’ve moved on with your life and left them in the dust.
Ghosting
Most of us know this word, either because it’s A) happened to us personally or B) happened to a friend who has proceeded to discuss it at length for months thereafter. The brutality of ghosting — the “fine” art of disappearing without a trace, blocking and ignoring you completely out of the blue, without so much as a hint of a warning — cannot be understated. It sucks for the person on the receiving end, but it’s also the kind of cowardly revelation you’d rather receive before you get too deeply involved with the person.
Catfishing
Catfishers are just plain nefarious. They go to great lengths to create faux profiles on dating sites, where they’ll deceptively connect with unsuspecting strangers who think they’ve found someone amazing. Turns out that someone isn’t actually real at all — and that the profile probably includes stolen photos from other profiles and other fake accounts and personas designed to create an alternate reality. Yes, it’s as creepy as it sounds.
Now that you speak a little bit of the language, you might feel more prepared for navigating a dating app. The good news is that on heybaby, you’re unlikely to come across folks who aren’t in it for the long haul.
A dating app for people who want kids or already have them draws some good souls — who may know the lingo from previous experiences but aren’t here for the games. Now that’s a refreshing change of pace.
