5. Dating Apps:

The method of choice among young millennials for meeting new people for sex and/or relationships. Tinder is the go to app, but others include Happn, Bumble, Coffee Meets Bagel, and, for an exclusively LGBTQ crowd, Grindr. With Tinder et al, connections can go in either one of two ways: 1)  There’s a mutual understanding that the two people want sex only — that can be explicitly said or come across through the language that’s being used (for example, “Do you wanna come over and watch Netflix?” implies sex). Or 2) actual dates are made (even though they’re not called “dates”), gone on, and repeated before the sex is had. While the goal might be a real relationship, the likelihood of that ultimately happening with Tinder is about as likely as going on a “date”…with Johnny Depp.

6. Online Personals:

OKCupid, Match, et al, are totally acceptable ways to meet people. There is no longer any stigma. Generally, online personals are used by a slightly older crowd, for more serious relationships — though online personals do still work for casual sex. The meet-ups that result from online personals may resemble more traditional dates, but again, they’re never called “dates.” Contrary to popular belief, online dating is not that different from dating in the “good old days” (i.e. the 20th century) — now there’s just technology involved.

7. Communication (or Lack Thereof):

You might think, with all of this new technology allowing people to connect  and stay in touch via websites, apps and texting, that communication about romantic expectations and assumptions might be better than ever. You’d be wrong. While these terms are widely used by this generation, they are still incredibly ambiguous, and different people have their own, different definitions. This often leads to total confusion and misunderstanding. (And that’s not even counting catfishing, the act of purposely misrepresenting yourself online in order to get attention, love, a cheap thrill, etc.)

8. Ghosting:

This is the very uncool phenomenon of disappearing on someone after you’ve “hung out” for a bit. Just dropping off the face of the earth — poof! — because you don’t want to deal with the messiness of breaking up. You figure, hey, this isn’t official, there’s nothing really actually to end, so I’m just going to pretend we never existed. No texts, no calls, no explanation, nada.  And when your INsignificant other reaches out via technology for some kind of closure, you just ignore them until they get the hint. A survey from Plenty of Fish say 80% of millennials have been ghosted. Real nice.