It was almost spring break and I was on the light rail heading to my afternoon classes. My two best friends and I were planning on spending spring break in Austin, Texas, where one of my best friends and I were planning on moving after graduation. I break from daydreaming about warmer weather to check my Facebook when I realize that the friend who was supposedly moving with me had blocked me on Facebook. I soon started checking all other social media. Turns out she had blocked me wherever she could. I quickly texted my other friend who had also been blocked. My first reaction is wondering what I did wrong. I was so angry. We had been best friends for years, and then out of nowhere a passive aggressive dumping. I never got an explanation for what I did wrong, or any other type of communication.
With the invention of social media comes a new way to communicate and share information and can be used to bring people together, but it can also be used to tear people down anonymously. It also makes it very easy to do something cruel and not feel guilty because you don't see the effect from the other side. A person can do whatever they feel without seeing how they hurt another person. It dehumanizes people, turns them into pictures on a screen.
Ghosting is defined as, the act of suddenly ceasing all communication with someone. Blocking them on social media, or not texting back is one of the many ways that ghosting can be done. While I firmly believe that no one should be forced to talk to someone they do not want to talk to, I do believe that this act of ghosting is just a way for people to not deal with a situation. With no repercussion and a click of a button, boom, someone is out of your life for good. Now while I believe that in certain situations this tactic could be very useful, for someone you just met or a bully or a stalker, I also believe that it is being used as a way of getting rid of someone instead of just working something out. Something that for the person who is doing the ghosting can have little to no consequences.
Well, I can say from experience that ghosting has a consequence, and that consequence was me. The situation they leave behind though is not something to be honored. The moment I saw that my best friend and I were no longer friends my heart dropped. Then it was months of combing through every situation wondering what you said or did wrong. It was looking up their Facebook and seeing that not only are we no longer friends, but that I didn't matter enough to them to even get a goodbye or a reason. That our time was worth less effort than just clicking a button.
