Zombie-ing
graphic courtesy of marcy wolfsberg
If you thought ghosting was scary, wait until you hear about dating’s spookiest new trend: Zombie-ing. As cuffing season approaches and Syracuse gets colder, you’re mindlessly swiping through Tinder in hopes of finding someone to keep you warm during the bitter, lonely winter. But oh wait, Jason who ghosted you four months ago just liked an Instagram picture you posted 13 weeks ago. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?!
You just got zombied.
Zombie-ing is when someone you’re seeing or hooking up with disappears from your life only to come back from the dead and try to revive the relationship long after they left. Their comeback could be anything from an out-of-the-blue text to a random social media interaction.
While we’re sure many of us have experienced this modern-age dating phenomenon without even realizing it, it’s hard to pinpoint one specific reason for this trend. That being said, we have a few ideas...
The zombie regretted ever leaving you in the first place (because you were obviously the best thing that ever happened to them) and now they’ve come crawling back.
The zombie is looking for a quick hookup and think you’d be down since you have history.
The zombie is just toying with your emotions because they can and people are rude.
With all of these ideas in mind, the situation depends on the person and your relationship. Whether or not you think they deserve a response is up to you.
If you choose to reply to the zombie in question, make sure you know their intentions. Don’t dive headfirst back into a relationship that they’ll just end up leaving again, or at least make sure you’re on the same page as to why they ghosted you in the first place.
If it’s an ex and the wound is still fresh, then maybe it’s better to take some time to heal before you jump back into anything. Especially if they’re just looking for a hookup, remember that in order to get over someone you need space to be your own person. So before you jump the gun and eagerly reply to that “hey stranger, what’s good?” text, make sure it’s actually what you need.
As the temperature keeps dropping and fuckboys get more aggressive, the dating trends will only get spookier and occur more and more often. Not only do we have zombie-ing, there’s ghosting, benching, monkeying, and too many others to keep track of. With the click of a button, you can choose to appear in someone’s life, or never speak to them again, and then just as easily change your mind again. And that might be the scariest thing of all.