There’s another brutal new dating trend and you may have already experienced it

Yikes.

We've seen ghosting, breadcrumbing, benching, cushioning and phubbing break many hearts across the dating world. And just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, it turns out there's a new trend that singletons need to keep an eye out for. In fact, it's one you may have already experienced: R-Bombing. Basically, it's when a person you're interested in reads your messages, but doesn't actually respond. Unlike ghosting, which is more of an overall disappearing act that usually involves unfollowing/blocking someone to prevent any more interactions, R-bomb usually refers a single incident. One that is all the more obvious thanks to red receipts on almost every form of digital communication. Dating coach James Preece told the Independent:

“This is incredibly common both by text and through social media. “It's very similar to ghosting, only you have no doubts they have got your message. You'll be confused and wonder why they aren't responding. "The truth is that the other person doesn't want to meet but doesn't want to hurt you by explicitly saying so.”

He added that someone may argue that they are "useless" at social media or just "super busy" at the moment in an effort to excuse their R-bombing tendencies. However, Preece says that someone who persistently R-bombs is usually disinterested in the recipient of their R-bombs - they're just too immature to admit it.