Ghosting is a social epidemic

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Jenna Hale, Staff Reporter

Many people think that ghosting is an easy out, or that it’s not that big of a deal to completely ignore someone. The people that consistently do this, usually fail to realize that the person they’re talking to through a screen has feelings. When it’s socially acceptable to ghost it’s making it ok to turn a cheek to people running away from accountability. Hiding from confrontation isn’t a quirk, it’s blowing off the consequences of doing inconsiderate things. 

People reserve the right to block and ignore strangers who are making them uncomfortable and contacting them over the internet. That is a completely understandable situation in which ghosting would be ok. On the other hand, if two people are interested in forming a relationship with one another and one of them suddenly becomes uninterested, a simple explanation would do its job to let the other know where they stand. When people think it’s ok to ghost someone in this circumstance, they represent the idea that ghosting is hiding from confrontation. It’s astonishing that someone could lack even a little bit of respect and recognition of others’ lives is honestly unbelievable. Ghosting promotes the absence of communication and just basic human decency. Simply saying that “you’re just a player,” does not make it right to stomp all over another’s emotions, especially if the people that get “played” easily form emotional attachments to their potential significant others.

When two people have put a substantial amount of time and effort on building a friendship or relationship it is a mockery of others’ time and effort to throw it away with no explanation. It can damage people’s ability to form close relationships in the future, and it can scar them emotionally if it is left unconfronted. If someone isn’t happy in a healthy relationship, communication is a way to show that the other’s time and effort was valued and taken into consideration. 

Ghosting will never just disappear, people are always going to hide from their problems by sacrificing the emotions of others. The only way to try and change how society thinks is to start changing how individuals think. Simply considering others and trying to work with them would help the problem. Consider talking with people before ghosting them. A conversation can be a much better and healthier resolution that results in closure, and explanation: the important elements that ghosting lacks.