It’s bad enough when guys pretend to be single and then you discover they’ve been hiding a GF somewhere, but now some people are faking their partners on social media. Known as “fauxbaeing,” this is literally the dumbest dating trend yet.
- It’s confusing and pointless. Why would someone fake a relationship on social media? If you’ve been getting to know a guy offline and then you check out his Facebook profile and see he’s listed as “in a relationship,” it can totally put you off him. Now imagine you find out that he’s faking his relationship. WTF?
- People want to seem in demand. Someone might fauxbae by setting a fake relationship status on social media or they might act like they’re dating loads of different people. Either way, it’s a fat lie to make people who want to date them feel jealous or like they have to compete for their attention. What’s wrong with people?
- It’s a rejection strategy but a really bad one. If you’re keen to date a guy and then he claims to be in a relationship or you see him flirting with someone on Instagram who could very well be his GF, he might be trying to let you down without telling you he’s not interested. What a freaking coward!
- Guys have actually been doing this for awhile now and we’re just catching on. Ever seen a guy on a dating app who posed with a woman in his profile picture and you couldn’t help wondering how he was stupid enough to take a picture with his GF and post it on a dating app to get women? Yup, he was fauxbaeing. The trend goes back a long way, with people feeling like they have to pretend to be dating someone so that they’ll increase their appeal.
- It comes down to intense dating pressure. There are times when you might be tempted to change your relationship status to “in a relationship” so that people stop bugging you about why you’re still single. We’ve all been there. Sometimes the pressure to have someone is stressful AF, which can make people want to fake their relationships, but it’s not worth it.
- What if someone actually wants to date you? You might be putting them off because they assume you’re taken and off limits. If you’re acting single on dating apps but fauxbaeing on social media, you come across as a lying cheat. Way to make a great first impression.
- It makes people look insecure. Seriously, people who fauxbae don’t seem confident and cool – they seem really insecure. A bit of digging around social media is all that’s required to discover that someone’s totally faking their relationship. For instance, you’ll spot a fauxbae-er by how he never appears tagged in any posts or pictures with his partner. EVER.
- It’s for attention seekers if that wasn’t already obvious. If you want people to leave you alone when it comes to your relationship status, making noise by pretending to have someone isn’t going to help you. It’s going to make people want to know all about this secret relationship you have. Ugh. Some people actually want that attention, like the guy who’s fauxbaeing in the hope that you’ll ask him if he’s taken or not. Let’s be honest: he looks like an attention-seeking toddler.
- Is anyone really impressed by this? If you feel good about yourself because all your followers on Facebook think you’re in a relationship, ask yourself: is it really worth it to base your worth on what other people think? You’re living according to their rules and standards, which sucks. At the end of the day, no one cares if you have someone and neither should you.
- It’s a revenge relationships status. Some people might hope that by pretending to have someone, they can get revenge on their exes. They hope that their exes will think they’re totally over them, or it could be a way to fight fire with fire—if their exes have someone new, they might want to show that they also have moved on with someone. What a waste of time! The more one tries to show their ex that they’re over them, the more it looks like the opposite.
- Fauxbaeing makes dating even more complicated. There’s enough out there that makes dating a minefield, so you really don’t need a fake relationship status to add to the heap. If someone sort of looks like they’re taken, why the hell would you want to waste time talking to them? The problem is that it’s not always easy to learn the truth about someone’s relationship status, especially if people are fauxbaeing in the hope of seeming really mysterious. Ugh.
- It’s turning people into stalkers. When you want to be sure of someone’s relationship status but fauxbaeing is making things murky AF, you might end up becoming a social media stalker. You might check out the guy’s social media accounts and dig around in all his photo albums for tangible proof that he’s got someone. It’s just so much stress and uncertainty! Can this trend die, please?
