Is this dating story ending worse than getting ghosted?

There are so many terrible dating trends out there - cushioning (when your other half lines up another lover before ending your relationship), sneating (dating someone for free dinners), and orbiting (continuing to like your Instagram pics after brutally ghosting you and getting so annoyed you want to launch them into space).

And then there's r-bombing - leaving someone on 'read' but never replying. Pretty sure most people are guilty of reading a message and forgetting to reply, but this is an active decision not to respond, and when the other person sees those blue ticks and never hears from you again it can be more than a little crushing.

The original dating trend, however, is - of course - ghosting. But is there something worse than being ghosted? How about someone who wants to know exactly when you've received and read their iMessages?

Twitter user @EricD14 uploaded a screenshot of a conversation between himself and a guy he had just been on a first date with.

He tweeted: '*Goes on first date, scared he’ll ghost but instead gets this text*' before sharing the following exchange:

His date texts: 'On my way to the gym now. Can you do me a favor [sic]?'

He replies: 'Yeah, what do you need?'

The date then says: 'Click on my contact, press the 'I', then turn on read receipts.'

His answer was a very understandable: 'What!?!'

The reaction on Twitter ranged from astonished to outraged, with many calling it a huge relationship red flag.

Others admitted that they would never turn on read receipts, while one Twitter user said: 'I ONLY turn read receipts for ppl that need to know I’m ignoring them.'

Is this fine? Weird? A warning sign?

We'll let you decide.