"Bird boxing" is now a dating trend that you really need to know about. 

In perhaps the most 2019 millennial turn of phrase we’ve ever heard: a new dating term has been coined using the title of a Netflix film.

Bird-boxing.

And it… actually makes a lot of sense.

Because when you think about it, the hugely popular and equally terrifying Sandra Bullock film is actually a lot like dating someone new.

We unpack Bird Box on our Recap podcast here… Post continues after audio.

I mean, fumbling around a post-apocalyptic world entirely blindfolded, aware there’s a huge and hideous monster in your midst but choosing simply not to see it?

Yeah, sounds about right.

The “hideous monster” hidden from view in this situation, however, is your new partner’s awful personality.

…Oh.

The term, created by the dating experts at Tinder, refers to when someone is blind to how rubbish the person they’re dating is.

And boy have we been there.

Dating translated. Post continues after video.

At the start, it’s all cute and harmlessly rebellious when they want to nick the pint glass from the place you had your first date. But a few weeks in, when you’re running from a bar with your date’s pockets clinking full of stolen glassware, you start to wonder whether they might actually have… a bit of a problem. Or is that just us?

It’s because at the start of every new relationship you’re wearing rose-coloured glasses (the blindfold). You don’t want to see their flaws, because you’re desperate for things to work out. Ignorance is bliss.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing to only want to see the good in a person you’re pursuing. It’s what makes us such romantics. Naive, foolish romantics.

Don’t get us wrong – if they’re the right person for you, these quirks won’t matter. You’ll even embrace them and come to find them endearing.

But the whole reason you put the Bird Box mask on in the first place is because you subconsciously knew what was in plain sight would actually hurt your chances of being able to continue a relationship.

And… similar to how seeing the Bird Box monster will kill you, seeing the traits in someone you’re trying to force a relationship with with kill the romance you’ve pretty much fabricated to fulfil your desires.

Sigh.

It’s not easy out there, is it?

But at least now you’re armed with the proper terminology.

Thank you, Sandra Bullock.