It is spooky season, so ghosts and zombies are everywhere. However, you should beware of the zombie who ghosts you and then, after some time has passed, “rises from the dead” and hits you up again. This can come in the form of a text, DM, phone call, or simply matching on another dating app. So what is zombieing and how does it compare to ghosting.

What is Zombieing?

It’s kind of like ghosting, except in this case you are dealing with Casper and he has resurrection serum. Zombieing is when the person who has ghosted you tries to come back from the grave. Basically, if you were zombied by someone, it means that this person disappeared from your life out of nowhere, but then popped back up in your life with a text or a “like” on social media essentially coming back from the dead. Just got a text from a guy who stopped talking to you several months ago that just says “hey stranger, how r u?” Then you are being zombied.

Zombieing vs Ghosting

After a few dates you start getting the cold shoulder. Every time you try to reach out or make plans, the person will say they’re super busy with work right now, or they are sick, or any one of a million other excuses. Then the only contact you have at all is when you initiate it until eventually, they stop responding all together. That is ghosting. There is no closure, no explanations, just a ghost of a memory. However, a zombie will put you on the back burner and get back to you a few months later. That does not mean they will not vanish again, just that they may occasionally rise from the dead.

The bottom line here is that ghosting, zombieing, or whatever cute dating term we’re using to excuse bad behavior boils down to one common thing: lack of respect. If someone is straight-up ignoring you or not treating you right, especially in the beginning stages of dating, that’s 9 times out of 10 not going to change. So, keep your ghosts and zombies out of your dating life, but you can still use them as Halloween costumes!