Relationship status: Mingle. This neologism is actually connecting something incompatible: being in a relationship and being single at the same time. The creation of this neologism is ascribed to the trend researcher Paul Wuppermann who blended the words ‚mixed‘ and ‚single‘ and created thereby an inflated wave of articles in the German area the last two years. #defintion Nevertheless, this resonance showed that he has the finger on the pulse of time of the 21th century because the term tries to describe a common phenomenon in the love life of today’s generation. In particular the specific state of uncertainty in a relationship like situation that occurs when both partners refuse to officially announce the relationship The existence of a Mingle is characterized by not having any kind of commitment and by enjoying the freedom and the opportunities of self-fulfillment. But this existence is paired with intimate moments of time together that hardly differ from those shared in ‘official’ relationships. This limited expression tries to define the underlying limbo in which Mingles are involuntarily staying and embodies a lifestyle of a generation which is obviously unable to commit.#lifestyle Besides this clear definition, the keyword Mingle represents a whole generation and our current Zeitgeist. This attitude gets supported by the fast-moving digital age, in which the Mingle construct can be located within an environment of an enormous range of dating apps and digital connectivity that makes life insecure, especially regarding to the private area. Even if we are talking about a lifestyle and a Zeitgeist of a generation, talking about Mingle as a keyword, also means to think about the consequences, which that construction causes, especially in Germany. With such an approach to life in our generation a shift or even an absence of birth in the German area has happened. Therefore, it is obvious that Mingle is hiding many social and cultural questions that need to be discussed. 

Although I see the massive transitions that a Mingle-attitude can cause, I moreover recognize the paradoxes in these negligible fears and problems and want to find out why `What If’- scenarios, the optimization tendencies in the love life and phrases like `It’s a Match!’ really affect us by heart and are building our identity nowadays.#discrepancyoftheself