People could be hitting on you using new ‘toe dipping’ trend without you even realising

In this day and age you could end up being the subject of someone's affections and not even realise it thanks to a new dating trend known as 'toe dipping'.

I know what you're thinking, what on earth does it mean to be 'toe dipping' and why would someone not realise it was the start of a flirtation attempt?

It's got nothing to do with actual toes, in case you were wondering, and everything to do with how someone acts on social media.

While many people making the opening move online will do the old 'slide into the DMs', as the kids these days presumably say, 'toe dipping' is a much lighter touch where you just start with a follow and wait to see what they do.

That first follow is the toe dipping in the water, and if you get a follow back it can develop from there, but if there's no reciprocation to following a likely stranger on social media then they'll unfollow and just move on.

It starts, and possibly ends with a follow (Getty Stock Photo)

Basically, you just start following a bunch of people you're interested in hoping some of them respond with a follow back you can interpret as a sign of interest, and anyone who doesn't do that gets unfollowed.

Who said romance was dead?

For the person on the other end of it things might just seem like an innocuous follow but what happens next depends on their response, as the follow back can be seen as an invitation to finally slide into the DMs.

One presumes that the 'toe dipping' moniker attached to this method alludes to the minimal amounts of commitment involved in doing it, as it can always be explained away as just hitting 'follow' on someone's profile.

That way at least there's less of a digital trail should a potentially unfaithful partner looking to play away start trying it.

If they don't get your attention from their bare minimum of commitment they'll unfollow and try it on someone else (Getty Stock Photo)

There are all sorts of new dating trends people are trying, including the unpleasant sounding 'pocketing' which involves someone keeping their relationship a secret for any number of reasons, sometimes to hide the fact they're cheating.

Then there's the internet-inspired 'stacking', or 'stack dating', that involves scheduling loads of dates in the same day and going on them one after the other to get them all out of the way.

Of course to do that one you actually need to have lots of people willing to go on dates with you, and if you've burned through them all in short order you might not be able to do it for very long.

Internet parlance has also infected these new kinds of dating, as there's also the '6-7' trend which sounds very unpleasant as it involves dating people you wouldn't personally rate at the top end of attractiveness in the hopes they'll be more grateful for you.

If everyone trying to date is thinking like that no wonder they're all single.