Haunting
Following a romantic partner on social media after abruptly leaving them
Example
Staci discovered that Trevor from a month ago is haunting her, and she's freaking out
Yikes, he always gave me stalker vibes
It's unsettling to be haunted
Related Slang
| Ghosting | Leaving without saying goodbye |
| Orbiting | Following someone on social media without direct interaction |
| Zombieing | Returning to someone you left abruptly and acting like you mutually ended it |
| Irish goodbye | Leaving without saying goodbye |
| Dutch leave | Leaving without saying goodbye |
| French exit | Leaving without saying goodbye |
| Fizzling | Letting lack of effort end a relationship |
| Breadcrumbing | Leading someone on romantically |
| Submarining | Dating a person, disappearing, then reappearing |
| Stashing | Dating a person but unwilling to publicly acknowledge it |
| Roaching | Secretly dating many romantic partners at the same time |
| Facestalking | Looking through someone's pictures on Facebook |
| Caspering | Ending a relationship in a friendly, but confusing way |
Can you score under par in this golf terms quiz?
Haunting is when a person ghosts a romantic partner but still follows the person on social media. The ghosted person is aware that they are being followed by the person no longer in their life, which leads to the feeling of being haunted.
The term was popularized in 2017 and is an extension of the "ghosting" trend that became prominent in 2014. A "haunter" may have ghosted you, or you may have mutually ghosted each other because you both knew that the relationship had no future. But then, sometime later, you are notified that the haunter watched one of your Instagram stories or they began following you on Twitter, and you are unsure why.
Your mind races, thinking that the haunter might still like you, or you might think they are just curious about how you are doing. The point is, you don't know the reason, and thoughts of them fill your mind.
There is no clear remedy for exorcising the feeling of being haunted. You could confront them through a direct message (DM), but that could get very awkward. You could also follow them back on social media to investigate their situation. Another option is not to let it bother you and keep living normally.