One would think that with ghosting we’ve found the ultimate low. Well, what if I told you there was something significantly harsher than ghosting? What if that something was actually a subcategory of ghosting? If you’ve ever been the victim of ghosting, you’ll want to know about the dating term mosting because maybe it’s happened to you.
Mosting is ghosting in the worst possible way. It’s when someone makes you feel super special, plays like they’re so into what the two of you have, and hype you up about the future, only to then ghost. It’s where love bombing and ghosting join forces. And it’s brutal.
Getting ghosted after a few casual dates is frustrating. You’re left quite unsure about why they ghosted because for the most part it’s been surface-level and you hadn’t gotten to the really deep stuff yet. It still hurts because you invested time into getting to know this person, but you’re able to cling onto the hope that all your eggs weren’t in one basket.
With mosting, however, the other person has pretty much convinced you that they’re it. You’ve been sucked into the fantasy of a bright future together and have probably already started planning in your head when to introduce them to your family and vice versa. You’re thinking this is it. You’re so deep in, and then they’re gone.
Tracy Moore, a writer for MEL Magazine, coined the term in a post she wrote titled “‘Mosting’: When People Come On Strong, Then Ghost.” In her article, she describes mosting as “the worst of the love crimes in many ways, because a lot of people can act charming just for sex, but only a certain breed of total phony will cry love.” And she’s right, it takes a certain level of cruelty to go that far.
Moore cautions to be wary of such an early promise of love when dating. There’s no defense against mosting, but you can protect your heart by not letting it get love bombed in the early stages of dating.
