Relationships

Orbiting: The Subtle Dance Around the Other

Drawing from the evolving grammar of digital interfaces, we encounter the neologism orbiting. It describes the behavior of someone who cuts off all direct contact - no messages, no invitations, no meetings - yet continues to “circle around” you. They watch your stories, like your posts, track your digital movements, and occasionally publicly ...

Benching: Keeping the Other on Hold

In the new digital dictionary, we are learning to decode, “to bench” means keeping someone on the sidelines, like a player who is sent neither off the field nor fully into the game, but kept warmed up, available, and waiting. Benching is not the radical severing of connection seen in ghosting, nor the deliberate freezing of icing. It belongs ...

Icing: When Love Goes into Freeze Mode

The Anglicism icing, literally “putting on ice,” is not just a lexical novelty born of online platforms. It can also be understood as a technique of connection. It is neither a breakup nor a clear absence, but a controlled freezing. The icer keeps the other in reserve, present yet unavailable. The act consists of responding sporadically, ...