Midlife guide to...

Scrooging

Here’s a riddle for your Christmas cracker: why has Dickens become a modern dating icon? Haven’t the foggiest. Is it something to do with Nancy’s feminist empowerment in

Oliver Twist? Or Miss Havisham’s bitter hatred of men in Great Expectations? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. He’s entered the hipster lexicon thanks to a new term in dating parlance: scrooging, named after A Christmas Carol’s protagonist. Right. And it means...? When somebody dumps their partner in December to avoid having to buy them a Christmas present. Who would do something so dastardly? One in 10 of us, according to research released by dating site eharmony this week, with 18- to 24-year-olds the worst offenders. Have millennials done away with common decency as well as saving for a house deposit? Well, I suppose they’re without much in the way of disposable dosh. And, once you’ve factored in rent, yoga and avocadoladen brunches, there isn’t much left to lavish upon a significant other. Can’t you just be honest with your partner about your, er, less than healthy bank balance? Ah, honesty – how quaint. There’s not much room for that these days, however – see the common practice of “ghosting”, where relationships are brought to an abrupt end simply by ignoring each other’s messages. How charming. Afraid so, and it’s spreading like wildfire – as are the more literary spins on dating trends. “Gatsbying”, named after F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic con man Jay Gatsby, has also become popular of late: the act of broadcasting videos of ourselves partying to all of our friends, purely for the attention of one particular potential suitor. Sounds exhausting. Give me analogue romance any day. Luke Mintz