Breadcrumbing Is The New Online Dating Tactic

In the headache-inducing world of modern dating, a group straddles the gap between borderline stalkers, the illusive ghosters and the tech-savvy mooners. They’re called the breadcrumbers. The term describes those people who contact you intermittently to keep you interested, but are stubbornly vague on whether a relationship will ever blossom. Then they vanish, and the cycle starts again. They keep you in limbo, just in case someone better comes along. The trail of morsels that breadcrumbers leave can range from seemingly random flirtatious texts, to like on Instagram from three weeks ago without making any further contact. But in a world where everything is instant, is crying “breadcrumb” the worst sign of entitlement? After all, texting back and forth doesn’t mean someone is bound to you. It’s complicated, says Dr Gayle Brewer, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Central Lancashire. Such labels can be a useful way to behavior that we find inappropriate or hurtful, she said. To Dr Brewer, the whole mess could be avoided if people were clear about the type of relationship they are looking for: whether that is hooking-up or something casual while they consider their options. With this information, people can decide whether to pursue the relationship and what to expect.