‘Fishing’ is the latest dating trend and it’s probably been done to you

Online dating can be rough.

We've had ghosting, bread-crumbing, Gatsbying, benching and even freckling and now there's another dating trend to get our heads around - fishing. It's not a new technique and is something you've either had done to you or that you've done to other people. Not to be confused with catfishing, whereby someone uses someone else's pictures on a dating profile, it means swiping right on everyone on a dating app and then sifting through your matches to see who you might want to talk to. Rather than be picky with who you like, it allows you to be picky once you know who likes you. It also applies outside of dating apps too. The classic, seemingly out-of-the blue "how are you?" Facebook message that you just know a lad has sent to ten other people as well as you? That's fishing too. So is there anything technically wrong with fishing? We don't love the idea of it but we get why someone might do it. It mightn't make you feel special to know you're just one of number of people being weighed up on a stranger's phone, but casting a wide net does save time. If nothing else, spotting a fisher should be pretty easy. Look out for generic, copy-and-paste banter that doesn't apply directly to you and recognise that 'random' late-night message for what it is.