"Ghosting" is a term that's relatively new: as said beautifully on Urban Dictionary, ghosting is

"The act of suddenly ceasing all communication with someone the subject is dating, but no longer wishes to date. This is done in hopes that the ghostee will just "get the hint" and leave the subject alone, as opposed to the subject simply telling them he/she is no longer interested. Ghosting is not specific to a certain gender and is closely related to the subject's maturity and communication skills. Many attempt to justify ghosting as a way to cease dating the ghostee without hurting their feelings, but it in fact proves the subject is thinking more of themselves, as ghosting often creates more confusion for the ghostee than if the subject kindly stated how he/she feels."

It doesn't have to be limited to someone that the subject is dating; in fact, in my experience, ghosting occurs because one party doesn't want the relationship to go to the level of dating at all. But why is this even a thing?! It infuriates me to no end, being that I am a relatively new member of the dating world and am a very straightforward person, that telling someone "I don't want to talk anymore" is not doable. And now that I've been exposed to the terrible system that is dating and been ghosted more times than I'd like, I'm here to rant.

Basically, ghosting is stupid, childish and immature, and it shows everything that is wrong with our generation. It shows what's wrong with our idea of dating, what's wrong with our methods of communication and our lack of empathy for other people. It's pretty much the most annoying thing on the planet (and no, I don't exaggerate).

Firstly, ghosting brings up what's wrong with our idea of what "dating" is. In the modern world, as opposed to there being a few steps within the process of getting to know someone and possibly even entering a relationship with them, there are levels upon levels upon sublevels of it. There are multiple levels to "talking" (kind of talking and talking are hugely different), there's hooking up, there's "almost dating," there's "dating" as in going out on dates with someone (which is usually synonymous to some form of talking), and there's "dating" as in being in a relationship. There are probably even more than that. Basically, it gets confusing. And half the time, it's hard to know what level you're exactly at with someone. This is because people in our generation are afraid. We're afraid of commitment. We're afraid of confrontation. Ghosting shows that there is no guarantee to what you are with a person, usually because we're too afraid to ask them, "so what are we?" in the first place. If things with a person aren't going where we want them to or we're not sure where they're going at all or simply just realize we're not into them, ghosting is the easy way out. It shows that even if you think someone is into you, they could wake up one day and decide that they're not with no warning and no explanation. It's childish. Ghosting is why people are insecure and afraid to enter relationships. It's why the hookup culture is so prominent. People are afraid to trust each other, and for good reason.

A huge contributing factor to why the dating world is so messed up right now is the fact that most of our relationships are not based on being face-to-face. Relationships today are through the phone. You would think that being behind a screen would make it easier to straight up say "hey I'm not feelin' this" to someone, but it actually does the opposite. We don't know how to talk to each other. We say things like "I didn't say anything because I didn't want to hurt the other person's feelings," but really, we're just cowards who don't know how to be straightforward. Hiding behind screens has made us unable to communicate. Because most relationships are more through texting or social media than through actual in-person interaction, ghosting has less consequences. Simply not texting someone back is the easiest way to avoid someone, and our modern world is perfect for that. Ghosting shows how bad our communication skills have gotten.

Ghosting is also a magical concept because it shows the lack of empathy we have for people. Really, this could be tacked on to what's wrong with the modern dating world (which, wow, is a lot, eh? Who came up with this? Why is dating so hard?). It shows that we don't really care about other people the way we say we do, and that relationships and people are shallow. People are selfish. If you can be talking to someone on some sort of level to where you are each interested and then you decide to end things just by never talking to them again, you are selfish, and you never cared about that person. You are a liar. We don't take each other as people seriously, and we don't take each other's feelings seriously. People simply don't care about one another enough to tell them how they feel.

If you ghost someone, in my book, you're kind of the worst. People deserve to be told why they're being dropped, or at the very least, they deserve to be told that you are ending things. It's really not that hard, and it will save everyone involved a hell of a lot of confusion and sadness. Don't make someone just "take the hint." Ghosting shows exactly why we are failing at love, and it needs to go.