From love bombing to being a chameleon: The latest words on Generation Z dating trends you need to know

The dating landscape has changed a lot in the last few years, especially for the youngest adults; Gen Z who have been active victims of various dating and relationship trends. Gen Z is one of the few age groups that pay attention to mental health and its serious consequences, however, amid the constant battle, many individuals have fallen prey to narcissistic behavior and casual encounters when it comes to personal relationships.

It is very easy to get caught in the fire of the changing dynamics of modern relationships driven by lack of communication, extensive digital presence and increased reliance on non-serious dating. The latest trends in the modern dating landscape have emerged to name these behaviors. These help you identify potential danger when starting to date someone to protect your mental health and peace.

Confusion

The term may sound bogus or coined by social media users to promote meme culture. The term combines the words ‘illusion’ and ‘relationship’, where the parties involved in the relationship have false perceptions or unrealistic expectations from each other. This type of relationship lacks emotional and mental intimacy which is the driving factor behind any successful relationship. Instead, the partners believe in illusions and have an exaggerated and idealistic image of each other, leading to unfulfilled expectations. Lack of proper communication is also a big factor behind this. It keeps the partners away from having mutual understanding, which can lead to even worse mental health and fear of abandonment and loneliness.

Chamaeleon

Another term that might sound weird but it happens to a lot of people and they don’t even realize it. In a situation like this, one partner changes their personality, interests, and behavior to fit in with their partner in order to impress them. Often or not, a person works very hard to accommodate their partner’s beliefs and expectations at the expense of their own personality. This leads to the loss of the person’s authentic self as they change their personality drastically, which is especially scary because people can do it without even realizing it. Changing a few things about yourself isn’t particularly wrong as long as the results are positive but if it becomes a vicious cycle and you feel like you’re losing more of yourself with each passing day, it’s time to rethink the whole relationship.

love bombing

Flattering a person and showering him with gifts, compliments and attention is a way of making your partner get so attached to you that he/she cannot leave you and this results in him/her treating you badly. Love bombing is emotional abuse, usually done by a narcissist partner, to manipulate you into staying with him/her, no matter how he/she is treating you. This causes great psychological damage to the brain, as the person gets used to receiving excessive amounts of love without any reason and it becomes difficult for him/her to break this pattern. People who are more sensitive and vulnerable towards their partners are most prone to love bombing. It is very important to recognize the difference between true love and fake love.

forgery

This is a method of hypothetically separating from a relationship to test a partner’s loyalty and commitment. However, narcissists practice this method because they want to gain sympathy and validation from other people by telling them that they have separated from their partner. Another meaning of this term can be when a partner threatens to leave or separate whenever there is a problem in the relationship instead of choosing to communicate and resolve conflicts. Constant threats of separation can ruin the mental health of the person who is being threatened and it can create a feeling of fear and abandonment in their mind.

Although these behaviours in relationships have always been there, naming them can help individuals understand and recognise these patterns early on, and prevent them from harming their mental health.