Undefined. Noncommittal. Nonjudgmental. A situationship is the blurry middle ground between friendship and a romantic relationship. There are no labels, and both parties are technically allowed to see other people.A situationship is appealing because it appears to offer all the benefits of a relationship with none of the responsibility. You can have sex or go out to dinner, but never send a single “good morning” text. You can meet a cute guy at the bar and never once tell him you are in a committed relationship. That is the marketable trait of the whole affair: It is always temporary and never exclusive.Many people attribute the rise of situationships to social media, COVID-19, or other cultural factors. Social media has promoted an artificial sense of connection from the comfort of one’s couch, making in-person relationships seem like extra work. COVID-19 compromised our social capabilities, making it mentally easier to settle for some semblance of a reciprocal relationship than to brave the dangers of being someone’s boyfriend or girlfriend.
But the real cause of the situationship’s success is our tolerance of it. Not even 70 years ago, if two people were seeing each other just to sleep together, with no intention of pursuing marriage, their community would have shamed them. Nowadays, it is perfectly acceptable to be single while sleeping with multiple people. Normalizing a warped version of commitment is easier than calling it out. But it should be called out, because refusing to do so contributes to our society’s broader unwillingness to pursue marriage.
