There's a toxic new dating trend called 'ghostlighting.' It's even worse than ghosting.

The dating world is getting more haunted by the minute, thanks to a toxic trend called \

The dating world is getting more harrowing by the minute.

Just when you thought "ghosting" − or disappearing on someone you're dating without warning − was enough of a problem, a new trend has entered the zeitgeist that's even worse. It's called "ghostlighting."

Essentially a toxic combo of "ghosting" and "gaslighting," ghostlighters drop all communication only to reinitiate contact later, as if nothing ever happened. To make matters worse, they'll often try to gaslight the person they were dating into believing there was no ghosting in the first place.

"Instead of owning it, they brush it off like it’s no big deal and then make an excuse like 'it seemed like you were super busy so I didn’t want to bother you,' " says Amy Chan, a dating expert and the author of the "Unsingle: How to Date Smarter and Create Love That Lasts," coming April 2026. "What makes it different from simple ghosting is the psychological twist. Ghosting is avoidance. Ghostlighting adds distortion by manipulating the facts so you doubt your own reality."

How romantic.