Dating is no longer as it used to be in the time of our ancestors. Now different terms have come up like situationship, entanglement, friends with benefits, no strings attached and so many others. We see less of traditional courting and being faithful. Most people now want a physical relationship with no strings attached. This means being together but not exclusive.
An Entanglement can go in two ways. An agreed entanglement and a relationship that turns into an Entanglement. When it’s a relationship that turns into an entanglement, it’s definitely not the same as ‘Friends with benefits’ because that was never the intention.
They both agreed to love each other. Eventually, if something happens and one person begins to withdraw themselves and their emotions, then you can say your relationship is gradually turning into an entanglement but not friends with benefits.
Find more about differentiating your relationship from an entanglement in the link below.
https://lovelife.ng/differentiating-entanglement-from-relationship/
As for an agreed entanglement, I’ll say they are almost the same as ‘friends with benefits’ because they have slight differences.
Similarities;
1. In an agreed entanglement, the both of you decide to be in a ‘situation’ without having labels or feelings just like friends with benefits.
They both do not permit labels….you can’t call the person a boyfriend or girlfriend…Team it’s complicated.
2. They are both free to have other relationships so you are in it with an open mind. There’s clearly no room for Jealousy.
3. They both have boundaries that are meant to be respected. You don’t have a right to their personal life so you should just respect boundaries.
4. They are both in the relationship for sex or anything other than love. That is, they are both not emotionally involved with each other, you just express your desires without any strings attached.
5. Someone always gets hurt. No matter how hard you try, someone always feels like they invested more in the relationship than the other person. It could be emotionally or financially. This is a big truth about open relationships. August Alsina was hurt when Jada went back to her husband. He knew she was married and she could never be his from the scratch. He agreed on just having sex and then feelings came in. There’s always going to be that one person who will develop some kind of feeling. Some develop and just act casually about it because they know the agreement was to have no strings attached but that won’t stop them from being hurt.
Differences
1. Friends With Benefits, like the name implies you have to be Friends. In an agreed entanglement, it could be sex that brought you two together and nothing more, it’s more like, no strings attached.
2. In friends with benefits, there’s communication because they are friends but In an agreed entanglement, anything goes. They can decide to only talk when they want to meet and when they meet.
Basically, they all end in crocodile tears and sometimes genuine friendships are broken. Social media, pop culture and TV shows have helped normalise the nature of this kind of relationship. It even makes you look like a fool if you are in a genuine relationship.
You’ll hear comments like ‘it will end in tears, breakfast na national cake, na mumu dey love’ when you post a picture of you and your boo.
Don’t mind the pressure. You want that happy relationship and that’s what you are going to get, irrespective of what people have to say.
