Its a slang term, used mainly by Zoomers and younger, and nobody actually seems to be able to consistently, precisely, define it.
As best I understand, its a relationship that is best defined by at least one person in it being fundamentally confused by what the ‘relationship’ even is.
Further attempt to explain why I define it this way
Back in the last millenium or thereabouts… we’d just call a ‘situationship’ something like “they’re not a good fit for each other” or “x thought it was / wanted it to be serious, y didn’t, thought it was totally casual” or “x (and y) doesn’t seem to know what they want from y (or eachother)”.
We didn’t really have a specific word for it.
Like, I’ve dated girls who slept with me on the first date, just started referring to us as boyfriend/girlfriend by date 2.
I’ve also dated girls where we did not have sex untill months in, and they literally requested that I … basically formally propose to them that we were now boyfriend and girlfriend, even though we weren’t dating anyone else, and it had been like 3 months… it was very important to her that I essentially formally propose our ‘we are officially dating’ status.
Different people all literally play by different rules.
And you have to 1] actually know what they are for yourself and 2] tell the other person what they are.
… It is totally normal to not know what you want out of a relationship, to not know what kind of person you want to be in a … more than friendship relationship with.
Its also pretty normal to feel socially pressured to just even have or not have … any, or some specific kind of a relationship.
You kinda just have to learn by trial and error, learn both who yourself is as a person, and what other kind of person you are looking for.
Thats… basically what maturing, growing, as yourself, into yourself, as a player in the game of society… is.
I mean yeah to the first part, but I was using cringe in like, the early 2010s.
Not based though, I think that came about later?
IIRC, ‘cringe’ started as ‘cringeworthy’, I think it might have originally gotten more widely used in tumblr/deviantart/fanfic/shipping type circles, and then it broke containment in the early 2010s?
wait, that’s what that’s it!!! thought it was more complicated.
Just sit down and codify your relationship expectations and boundaries.
Bring a printout of a relationship smorgasbord
I mean, I am just asserting this definition here.
I’m not the King of the Dictionary.
(Although, apparently, Lords Merriam and Webster do seem to agree with me. I did not actually know this existed in ‘the dictionary’ prior to writing that.)
Its a slang term, used mainly by Zoomers and younger, and nobody actually seems to be able to consistently, precisely, define it.
As best I understand, its a relationship that is best defined by at least one person in it being fundamentally confused by what the ‘relationship’ even is.
Further attempt to explain why I define it this way
Back in the last millenium or thereabouts… we’d just call a ‘situationship’ something like “they’re not a good fit for each other” or “x thought it was / wanted it to be serious, y didn’t, thought it was totally casual” or “x (and y) doesn’t seem to know what they want from y (or eachother)”.
We didn’t really have a specific word for it.
Like, I’ve dated girls who slept with me on the first date, just started referring to us as boyfriend/girlfriend by date 2.
I’ve also dated girls where we did not have sex untill months in, and they literally requested that I … basically formally propose to them that we were now boyfriend and girlfriend, even though we weren’t dating anyone else, and it had been like 3 months… it was very important to her that I essentially formally propose our ‘we are officially dating’ status.
Different people all literally play by different rules.
And you have to 1] actually know what they are for yourself and 2] tell the other person what they are.
… It is totally normal to not know what you want out of a relationship, to not know what kind of person you want to be in a … more than friendship relationship with.
Its also pretty normal to feel socially pressured to just even have or not have … any, or some specific kind of a relationship.
You kinda just have to learn by trial and error, learn both who yourself is as a person, and what other kind of person you are looking for.
Thats… basically what maturing, growing, as yourself, into yourself, as a player in the game of society… is.
As a millennial I must admit, Gen Z created a lot of useful words to describe the human experience. we just created “selfie” and fuck else.
Bedrotting, Situatinships, Ghosting…
I’m sure a lot of the meme words will vanish, but Gen Z had a significant influence on the language.
https://www.wikihow.com/Millennial-Slang
Hey don’t count us out completely.
But also, yeah, a lot of them are extremely cringe.
… Also, why isn’t ‘cringe’ on this list?
Half of them aren’t really millennial, we stole those from the Black community millennials.
I think Cringe/based are also Gen z.
… Huh.
I mean yeah to the first part, but I was using cringe in like, the early 2010s.
Not based though, I think that came about later?
IIRC, ‘cringe’ started as ‘cringeworthy’, I think it might have originally gotten more widely used in tumblr/deviantart/fanfic/shipping type circles, and then it broke containment in the early 2010s?
Maybe, it’s all nebulous in between generations.