‘Orbiting' Is the Newest Dating Trend, and Here's How to Make Sure It Doesn't Happen to You
Welcome to 2018: the year of the royals, Kanye West tweet-rants and a horrible new dating trend called “orbiting.”
Unlike its super-cool celestial-sounding name, it sucks. Basically, it’s when the person you’ve been seeing cuts off all meaningful communication (à la ghosting) but continues to engage with you on social media, whether it’s by checking your Instagram or Snapchat stories, liking your Facebook updates or commenting once in a blue moon on a post. It’s like they’re hovering just outside of your sphere of actual meet-ups, but still lingering post-“no reply back.”
According to ManRepeller, the reason for orbiting is simple: “In a world where we can find a partner at our fingertips and follow their daily lives by just opening an app, it’s tempting to keep up with them, even if we’re not that interested.”
But, unlike ghosting (where you can’t reasonably make the person respond to your unanswered text), there are ways to avoid orbiting. First, you can block the person from seeing your stories on Instagram or just delete the person altogether from your social media channels. And if, God forbid, you’re the one guilty of the orbiting, you might want to consider “muting” the person on Instagram (or “snooze” their posts on Facebook) so you’re not causing undue harm to someone who didn’t strike your fancy.
That dude who never responded about the pizza night but continues to watch every Instagram story? Not on our planet.
