Ihope it goes without saying that I take my role as Cosmo’s resident toxic dating trend expert quite seriously. But I’ll admit that behind the scenes, I’ve been known to occasionally side-eye a new dating term that’s supposedly dominating the discourse on the grounds that it’s...just not a real thing that anyone actually says. (Not naming any names.) Today is not one of those days, however. Because I’m afraid that “ghostlighting,” the latest dating trend to make its way to my desk, is all too real.

A portmanteau of “ghosting” and “gaslighting,” ghostlighting is when someone effectively ghosts/slow fades on you, only to randomly pop back up later and reinitiate conversation as if nothing happened, all while acting like you’re crazy if you call them out on it. For example, if you mention

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