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"Dial-toning" is when people give you their contact info but ignore you when you actually reach out to them.

It's quite common in the dating world as 46 percent of survey respondents admitted to dial-toning others.

Dial-toning may be a way to avoid directly rejecting someone or used by those just looking for validation.

Direct, face-to-face rejection rather than dial-toning can save everyone time, effort, and guess work.

You may not like the tone of this dating behavior. It’s being called “dial-toning,” and it’s when people give you their contact info only to then ignore you or, in some way, avoid you when you actually reach out to them.

This behavior could range from radio silence—or maybe the more up-to-date term is blue-tick silence—to very vague responses when you follow up with a text or a call. The contact info that you were given could have been their real contact info or perhaps a fake one, such as the number for the local pest control service. Either way, it soon becomes quite clear that they have no real interest in pursuing anything further. This can be quite disappointing, since you might have thought that they offered their contact info so that you could, you know, contact them.

It’s not quite ghosting because you haven’t even been given the chance to be ghosted. Ghosting requires some kind of connection........

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