Phase 1: Quality/Quantity of Communication Decreases
Nowadays it is more common for people to familiarize themselves with one another through texting and social networking sites before actually meeting and socializing with person face-to-face. It is also very common for people to date online through online dating websites. The shift from face-to-face communication to computer-mediated communication plays a giant role in the quality and quantity of communication in a relationship. It is now easier to be deceitful, and antisocial, as well as you can have obsessive monitoring. When these actions are taken advantage of, it effects the communication between romantic partners negatively.
Phase 2: No Affection or Enjoyment Around Your Partner
This aspect happens when you don't enjoy being around your partner anymore. Here are a few things that might let you know if your relationship has hit this stage. There is often silence and when there is communication it's often conflict, you and your partner start going through day-to-day motions without any real feelings. You act like nothing has changed, but there is no joy, enthusiasm or interest in the relationship, and looking at your partner and not having any feelings, desire, or connection anymore.
Phase 3: Avoiding discussing relationship because you know where it is going
The progression of SNS in our everyday lives has made it easier to avoid any face-to-communication with a partner because you're readily able to access communication via text message, Facebook message, Twitter, etc. Back in the day, people did not have technology and had to communicate face-to-face if they wanted to discuss their relationship issues. Having technology to easily communicate with acts as a way for a partner to hide behind the screen and avoid dealing with a situation they know needs to be solved. On the other hand, it can also be harder to avoid discussing problems in a relationship because the person is consistently seeing their partners content on their social media page(s).
Phase 4: Is Your Relationship Hopeless?
This phase often consists of a partner feeling like there is no way to salvage the relationship. In SNS, we often see this phase when a partner stops sharing any status updates or pictures relating to their significant other.
Phase 5: Family & Friends Notice There Is A Problem
When engaging in a relationship online, you can run into a few problems, you can feel hopeless and stop trying to salvage your relationship. Those who have engaged in online relationships tend to run into problems with friendship satisfaction, the romantic couple is conscientious of their predicament and people around them tend to notice it as well. Family and friends see that love, commitment, and closeness are becoming non-existent and they start to wonder what is going on and the romantic partners start to physically avoid one another
Am I in the Stagnation Stage?
In summary, if you start to notice the dissolution of your relationship and you see that there is no more of that intense feeling of passion and romance then your relationship is starting to go on the decline. If you start to notice the quality/quantity of communication decreasing, no affection or enjoyment around your partner, avoidance in discussing the problem, hopelessness in the relationship, and that others (family and friends) around you start to notice that there is a problem, then you are in the stagnation stage of your relationship.
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