The Urban Dictionary describes breadcrumbing as: "The act of sending out flirtatious, but non-committal text messages (i.e breadcrumbs') to members of the opposite sex in order to lure a sexual partner without expending much effort." Vicki Pavitt, Match’s Dating Expert takes us through why this is the absolute worst dating phenomenon of 2018.
Relationships on Female First
The vagueness - dates end with ‘that was great, we should do it again sometime’. But ‘sometime’ turns into 6 months when they reappear back into your life (and inbox!) like nothing ever happened. When they do reappear, they suggest going out again but with absolutely no intention of following it through. They’re not interested in committing, they just want to keep you interested in them.
The inconsistency - one minute they’re sending you gushy texts full of compliments and the next they’ve gone totally AWOL and you don’t hear from them for weeks. Then they pop up again and start liking old Facebook pictures of you or they tag you in a meme on Instagram. They message you, you reply and then poof, they’re gone again.
It’s hard work - they will send you sporadic texts like ‘hey, how you doing?’ or ‘hey, what are you up to?’ and you’ll respond but then they don’t reply for hours and then they’ll send you another generic text and the whole conversation will feel like hard work. It is these texts that are the crumbs that keep you hanging on, just enough to keep you interested and hungry for more.
The flakiness - if they do suggest meeting up and you make a date, they usually can’t make it at the last minute and have to postpone. But of course when the next date comes around, it happens again (and again and again).
The repetition - as soon as you’ve started to forget about them and lose interest in them, they pop up out of nowhere, to repeat the same old cycle again. It will feel like you’re being ghosted over and over again. You’ll never know where you stand with them and you deserve more than that. Don’t take the bait and find someone who will treat you with the love and respect you deserve.
tagged in dating