You’ve probably heard of ghosting, the act of ending communication with someone by simply not responding to texts, calls, and emails without any warning or explanation. Even though it seems easy enough to avoid confrontation this way, you may be surprised to find out that it can actually be more difficult than just being honest and up-front. Here’s why ghosting someone might not be as satisfying as you think.
Why Ghosting Someone Might Not Be as Satisfying as You Think
The Why? of Ghosting
The bottom line is that people want closure. No matter how rude or abrupt someone’s ghosting behavior seems, they are likely trying to avoid conflict. In their minds, they’re avoiding confrontation. There are a few reasons why we could ghost. Maybe we don’t have time to talk right now because we have an important meeting, or maybe it just isn’t worth our time to have that difficult conversation right now and we think it will be easier if we just vanish instead of talking about what happened. Regardless of why you’re ghosting, it might not make you feel better in the long run. It might even make you feel worse.
How to Avoid Being Ghosted
Most of us have, at some point in our lives, experienced being ghosted by someone. It’s happened when you’ve been dating a girl and all of a sudden she stops responding to your texts or calls. Or maybe you’ve had a potential employer stop responding to your emails after an interview. What can we learn from being ghosted? In reality, it might be more painful than not responding at all because now there is anxiety mixed with that strange sense of rejection—so how do we avoid being ghosted? Ghosting can happen in any part of life where there is relational interaction, so here are four ways to prevent it 1) Don’t make assumptions about what other people want; 2) Let go of expectations; 3) Keep communication open; 4) Listen to others.
Psychological facts about dreams of someone
What NOT to Do if You Are Being Ghosted
If you're being ghosted, it's tempting to hunt down your ghoster and try to get some answers. If you think that your lack of a response means they don't care about you, I have news for you: they still do. It's likely that they're worried about getting hurt, or maybe even too embarrassed to talk about what happened with anyone else. If you chase them down, it will make things harder for them—they'll probably feel cornered and won't want to talk about what happened at all. Instead of putting your ghoster on blast and making it difficult for them to open up later (if they ever do), give them space and trust that if/when they are ready to talk about what happened, they will reach out when ready. And in case you were wondering... no, there is no expiration date on how long someone should wait before reaching out again after being ghosted. They'll come around when they're ready!
