Ghosting, phubbing, doomscrolling — these words did not exist thirty years ago. The behaviour they describe mostly did not either.
This cluster maps the new social patterns that emerged from platform architecture. Many of these behaviours feel personal. They are also structural.
The question this cluster asks: which of your habits were designed for you?
Terms in this cluster
Cognitive Surrender
You stop looking things up yourself. You stop forming opinions before checking. The thinking gets outsourced — gradually, invisibly.
Phantom Vibration Syndrome
Your phone is not vibrating. You feel it anyway. Your nervous system has been recalibrated by a device.
Phatic Interaction
“How are you?” “Fine.” Nobody meant either sentence. The exchange happened anyway. This is what most digital communication is.
Doomscrolling
You know the news is bad. You keep scrolling. The platform is not making you — it just made stopping harder than continuing.
Ghosting
No explanation. No ending. Just absence. A behaviour that platform architecture made easier than the conversation.
Phubbing
Someone is talking to you. You are looking at your phone. Both of you pretend it is not happening.
Catfishing
A false identity, built carefully over time. The platform makes it possible. The loneliness on both sides makes it happen.
Breadcrumbing
Enough contact to keep someone interested. Not enough to mean anything. The minimum viable relationship.
Orbiting
You ended the relationship. You still watch every story. They know you are there.
Lurker
Present but invisible. Reading without responding. Most people on most platforms, most of the time.
Smombie
Walking while staring at a screen. A word that needed inventing because the behaviour needed naming.
Flexing
Showing what you have so others know where you stand. Status display, optimised for the feed.
Doom Spending
The future feels uncertain. Spending feels like control. The purchase does not help. You make another one.
Hustle Culture
Always busy as identity and norm. Rest as failure. Productivity as the measure of a person.
Imposter Syndrome
You feel like you don’t belong. Everyone else’s highlight reel looks more convincing than your backstage.
Parasocial Relationship
You feel like you know them. They do not know you exist. The platform designed it that way.