You’ve heard of ‘ghosting’ when it comes to dating, but have you ever heard of ‘benching’?
Benching is when you have two potential suitors, but you decide to ‘bench’ one of them.
If one is giving you a bit more, you might decide to put the other one on ice without completely cutting them out until you make up your mind.
Then if the first option doesn’t work out, you can pick up where you left off with the other guy.
Steph Koyfman, Senior Content Producer at the language learning platform Babbel, told Glamour Magazine:Â “Benching is an updated version of ‘stringing someone along,’ and it reflects the choice paralysis of having multiple online dating prospects to juggle.”
“Benching someone is essentially like benching a football player – they’re not your first (or maybe even second) choice, but you still want to keep them around as a backup option, so you give them just enough to keep them interested.”
The first sign you’ve been ‘benched’ is when your romantic interest suddenly stops contacting you without any explanation.
But unlike with ‘ghosting’ where they completely disappear from your life, they will later spark up conversation with you out of the blue.
Read more: 10 Modern Dating Terms Explained.
