Orbiting is when someone who stopped talking to you keeps watching and interacting with your social media, staying in your orbit without real contact.
Orbiting describes the strange situation where someone cuts off direct contact yet keeps circling your online presence. They watch every story, like your posts, and stay just visible enough to notice.
The term pairs the idea of a satellite with the silence of ghosting. The person is gone from your messages but still hovering in your notifications.
Motives vary widely. Some keep you as a backup option, some are simply curious, and some do it almost without thinking.
Whatever the reason, orbiting sends mixed signals. The attention suggests interest, but the lack of conversation suggests the opposite.
It overlaps with haunting, which describes the same lurking behavior from someone in your past.
If an orbiter is making it hard to move on, you are free to mute or block them. Clearing your feed of the constant reminders often makes the silence easier to accept.