The Situationship Trap Nobody Talks About

The listener who wrote in about Love Island’s “exclusive but not boyfriend/girlfriend” debate got more than she bargained for. On this episode of U Up?, Jordana Abraham and Jared Fried dissect the entire taxonomy of modern dating labels—situationship, seeing someone, dating, exclusive, relationship—and argue that most of these terms exist not for the people in them, but for the friends and family who need an explanation. The conversation spirals into a broader diagnosis of why people use vague labels, what they reveal about power dynamics, and how the same patterns show up in the episode’s listener emails about icks, dealbreakers, and post-breakup detective work.

The Situationship Is a Disappointment Label

Jordana and Jared agree on a core definition: a situationship is not a neutral category. It is what you call a relationship when one person wants more and the other person does not, but both keep showing up anyway. “A situationship is when one person is getting what they want and the other person is agreeing to what the other person wants, even though they want more,” Jordana says. Jared sharpens it further: “Situationship only is the label when someone’s disappointed.”