Listen up, ladies.

A new douchebag craze has just hit the town, and guess what? It’s about to ruin bread for you.

If you’ve never heard of ‘breadcrumbing,’ let me define the term: Breadcrumbing is when a boy (yes, I know not all boys) leads you on by dropping you small affections here and there – whether it be throwing you some love on social media or an actual physical touch – with absolutely no intention of following through on his actions.

Yes, there is finally a name for that moment when you’ve just about gotten over that a-hole in your life, and then they text you and you get sucked back in because, as women, we are more susceptible to falling for the same moves over and over.

Gentlemen, I mean no offense to your gender. However, to put it simply, out of men and women, who is more likely to lead the other on juuuuust enough to keep them interested? That’s not to say women don’t breadcrumb. We do, but the term for women who breadcrumb is called tease. Let’s all agree that women tease and men breadcrumb. It doesn’t even matter the terminology. What matters is that the United States is 241 years old, and we, as a society, can’t even break things off with someone in an appropriate manner.

What’s even more concerning is the fact that we all know when we’re being led on, but we allow it to happen anyway. That speaks more about us than the actions of the person doing the leading on. Are we so desperate for affection that we accept whatever form it comes in? Of course we're that desperate. We’re only human, afterall. Everyone wants to feel desired, even if the person doing the desiring is a total butt head.

In an ideal world, communication would be the driving force of every relationship, and for some, it is. We can mock our days of elementary relationships, filled with dramatic situations that seem not so dramatic in the end (hindsight is always 20/20), but unless you’re, like, really, really good at expressing your feelings, then every problem you have have with your SO is going to seem magnified.

I’ve been trying to think, while I type, about a time when I’ve been breadcrumbed (if you say that fast enough, it sounds like something vastly different and far, far worse), and then I realized that every guy I’ve spoken to has breadcrumbed me (I am now realizing I shouldn’t have brought to your attention how dirty that word can sound).

If you’ve kept up with my articles, then you’ll know that I am very much, and have always been, single. However, I’ve had plenty of interactions with the opposite sex. Put two and two together, and my entire dating career has been about me getting attached to a guy and him slinking away from my affections. That’s not to say that it’s wholly the guys fault. I read into situations that don’t exist all the time. (I’m a writer; I like to make things up in my head.) All I ask, all anyone asks really, is that if you liked me enough to start talking to me but then things change, just tell me. Don’t lead me on.

It doesn’t feel good to be led on, no matter who you are. As a society, we should all make the conscious efforts to just not be dumb. Next time you feel like you’re being Hansel and Gretel’d, either sit that person down and ask what’s the deal, or, as they did in the Titanic, jump. Too soon?