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The Dating Guide: The Gen-Z Edition
Femina
|February 2023
As dating scenarios evolve, so do vocabularies. Ravina M Sachdev lists popular dating terms that will make you advance from a mystified "what!" to an "I know that!"

Remember the golden days when love meant falling for someone, riding off into the sunset, and living happily ever after? No, we don't either. Sadly, that wasn't the case then and it's not the case now. But what it is, is different. Anyone who has been on the dating scene in recent times can attest to the fact that modern-day dating is baffling. Between being 'ghosted' and 'breadcrumbed', forget finding your other, you first have to understand the vocabulary of the situation! As if love wasn't already complicated enough, you now need a dictionary of new dating trends that you need to be aware of... because, friend, something from this lexicon could be happening to you as we speak. Curious? We got you.
BENCHED
Mr. Big couldn't commit to Carrie in Sex And The City and stated that he never wanted to get married, only to eventually end up getting hitched to someone else. The cad! The 2023 term for this dating trend is benching, which occurs when someone acts as if they like you, flirts with you, continues to lead you on, and keeps you interested, just in case it doesn't work out with other people they're dating. Simply put, you're just another option to them, a plan B of sorts, while they continue to work things out with someone else.
BREADCRUMBING
This story is from the February 2023 edition of Femina.
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