Just like a ghoul wandering through the night, you vanished without leaving a trace. With every ding and bing you continued to further isolate yourself from the words and sentences that continued to envelop your phone screen. You went on one date with him. ONE date. You two just didn't click and now he keeps texting you. What do you do? Do you tell him the truth and break his heart? You know that would be the appropriate and more responsible way of handling the situation; however, you decide to take the high road and ghost him. That's right. You decide to just suddenly fall off the face of the earth.

The "art of ghosting" has been part of our culture for years. Back before text messaging and emailing was a thing, people avoided others to get the message across that they just weren't into you anymore. The game has been completely revolutionized in the 21st century. New technological advances in communication have altered the way we indirectly show our disinterest in people. Instead of having to address the person face to face, we now have the ability to ignore their texts, phone calls, and Twitter direct messages. Cellphones have made it virtually easy to block someone out of your life for good. This inclines me to ask, what has made our culture so afraid of confrontation?

Our temperaments are not the same as they used to be. People are naturally selfish, whether they say so or not. That's something that hasn't changed about us. However, we have become mentally lazy and attempt to do everything the fast and easy way. This normally constitutes not straight up telling someone that you're not interested. In essence, we have continued to feed into this way of life. Man created the cell phone. The contradicting means of improving communication with people but also the cause for disconnection from the real world and the people that inhabit it. We have become social, introverted butterflies.

Is what we're doing wrong? Perhaps. Are there more effective ways of handling situations by which you wish to disconnect from a person? Definitely. Do we keep them in mind? Of course not. Some people just don't like confrontation. That's understandable. However, I think it's important that we try to be more mindful of others and their feelings. As much as it's cringe-worthy for you to tell someone that you're just not into them, it's better you just rip that bloody band aid off and get on with life. You can't run away from uncomfortable situations forever. They'll eventually creep up on you out of no where and then you will be trapped.