This Valentine’s Day, get to know these dating terms that are redefining the contours of relationships

With artificial intelligence coming to one’s rescue, playing the ultimate wingman, the lover’s lane in the year 2025 isn’t all the same. Whether celebrating Valentine’s Day or not, it is about time to know the dating terms doing the rounds!

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Nanoship

A brief flirtatious encounter is the new dating reality, labelled nanoship. It is for those not looking for love or commitment, but a momentary flirtatious gesture—that brief glance, a fun banter. No strings attached, nanoship is for an utterly brief period!

Micro-mancing

Small acts of love rather than grand gestures. Couples today want romance in everyday lives and getting one’s favourite coffee order, sending a song or sharing an inside joke, micro-mancing is about micro but meaningful acts of love and care.

Pink flags

Nothing is in black and white, and lovers today accept and duly acknowledge that. Red flags are deal breakers, green flags signal lasting bonds, while pink flags reveal things are far from fine. Very personal in nature—someone not texting enough or getting too possessive might turn out to be pink flag for an individual! The way forward is to address and change behaviour accordingly to make it to the green zone!

Fiscal Attractions

Youngsters today believe in being financially responsible and that spills to love trails as well. Someone who has the financial future planned out is likely to win potential matches. Not necessarily how much, but how to navigate financial well-being makes one fiscally attractive.

Affordating

Now when we talk of being fiscally attractive, Gen Z has embraced affordating with equal panache. Being real and realistic about one’s monetary situation, and how much and how to spend makes ‘affordable’ dates a reality.

Delusionship

‘Delulu’, referring to ‘utterly mistaken or unrealistic in one’s ideas or expectations’, wasn’t just the word of the year 2024, it got shipped as well! An imagined or idealised relationship that’s not based in reality is delusionship.

Textationship

A relationship that exists largely in ‘texts’. With youngsters today spending more time digitally, it makes sense. Now whether a textationship leads to a relationship depends if you are as good in life as in texts!

Future-Proofing

The Gen Z today is smartly navigating relationships. Future-Proofing is asking and ensuring that the two of you are on the same page at all times.

Kittenfishing

Not as bad as catfish, which is a personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes, kittenfishing is misrepresenting to appear more attractive. Like using pictures from years before or filtered images to wearing a hat to cover baldness —basically its going catfishing light!

Situationships 2.0

Situationship, where there is physical and emotionalintimacy without commitment, has ruled the dating scene for a while, 2025 sees Situationships 2.0 that has dating partners being upfront about their needs, so that nobody cries foul at the end of the day!

From being ‘on the same (fan) page’, for example Swifties, to beige flags, orange flags, blue flags and black flags, referring to shared idiosyncrasies, warnings that mustn’t be ignored, potential for growth to the deal breakers, respectively, relationships today enjoy a whole new jargon!