Honestly, who tf cares if I get left on read for a week? People have their reasons, their life and they go through shit, you won’t always have the ability or will to reply and that’s totally understandable, I would at most get worried and hope they’re okay, maybe text again cause they could have also just forgotten lol

As long as it has an explanaition I guess tho, if not I could see why some get upset. Same when it’s something important.

Only time getting ghosted ever mattered to me was when talking to my therapist about future appointments and my life plans, sent a long text and she never replied, still don’t know to this day why that happened and it feels weird. She’s still active on all her socials too and had contact info besides the place we were chatting at, so I can really think of excuses girl just hates me xd

I used to talk to this girl on some random app in the early days of social media. We became good friends and would facetime every other day and got to know each other pretty well. This went on for probably about 2 years. She even began to have feelings for me.

At some point, I decided to completely ghost her. The truth is I got this idea in my head that talking to girls on the internet was sad and desperate. But I didn’t want to tell her the truth.

She tried calling me and texting me but I never replied. Even about 6 months later she tried calling me out of the blue, but again I ignored the call.

To this day she still doesn’t know why I just disappeared on her. It was a horrible thing to do and I’m not proud of it. Ghosting is almost always cruel unless you have a very good reason for it.

For this post let’s assume the people involved are or were in the past friends, and ghosting is leaving someone on “read” for more than 2 days.

This doesn’t match how I’m used to seeing ghosting defined.

That behavior might be unfriendly, but there are a ton of innocuous reasons people do it. People are busy and not every message merits a prompt reply. If someone sends me something that requires more time or attention than I have at that moment like a video or news article, I’m likely to make a mental note to look at it later. I might actually remember, and then remember to send a reply about it. I might not.

It’s maybe a little rude not to respond to something more important or time-sensitive, but I can always ask again or use something more synchronous like a voice call. People are busy, life happens, tech can be unreliable. It’s best not to assume intentional disrespect.

My understanding of the term “ghosting” is permanent or long-term cessation of communication over all channels without explanation. That should be reserved for situations where someone is a physical danger or behaved in a manner so egregious they almost certainly know what they did.

I got to be good friends with someone I met at work and we gamed online when we could. We’d be playing a game, and he would always get so angry, raging at the game into the mic (I’m the only one listening, mind you), actually getting angry at a video game. I would find it amusing at first, but it became exhausting after a while, so I would find other games to play or just go invisible on Steam. He’d call me every so often, asking what’s up or if I was playing that night, but I’d find other things to do or say I wasn’t playing much anymore. I really hate lying to people.

It wasn’t until years later he started getting assault weapons, talking conservatively, and becoming toxic in general. I decided to ghost him because I felt I couldn’t trust him anymore. It’s really too bad, as he was a nice guy at first, but something changed in him and it gave me an icky feeling. I suppose it’s for the better, as I have no idea how he would have handled my transition.

Depends. Someone toxic that doesn’t respect boundaries? Absolutely. A good friend for no reason? No.

with today’s overwhelming and constant information and notification overload

If that’s the reason, I think there’s an issue with managing notifications. Limit them to important people and there won’t be much more mental clutter than in the past.

Ghosting people for other reasons if completely fine though and is not the same at all as ignoring them in real life.

It’s cowardly behavor that dehumanizes people.

Two days is not ghosting if they’re busy or struggling.

Personality and relationship/closeness matters, as well as expectations.

Ghosting can be disappointing and can be hurtful.

Assuming they’re simply friends;

2 days…not a big deal. You’re friends not partners. They have their own priorities and probably was in the middle of something when they read it and forgot. Bit crappy if they do it often, but thats how some people are.

2 weeks…if you texted them a few times, and know they’re alive via other means, than yeah something happended that lead to the ignore you. Could be something in their personal life changed, or its you.

2 months…try to connect via mutual friends, attempt to learn why they’re ghosting you

2 years…they’re not your friend anymore, leave them alone.

(Also turn off read receipts, that shit is toxic)

It’s immature. Just say you’re taking a break from messaging right now.

Double goes for dating. If you get ghosted by someone, probably a good thing, because they aren’t relationship material yet.

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Sometimes you’re overwhelmed, and that’s ok, if the person is toxic then it’s ok to ghost them. However, if you just don’t enjoy their conversation, or have better things to do, as an adult you have the moral obligation to let them know you’re not going to be responding. It’s as easy as “I’m busy so won’t be able to respond to messages as frequently”. It’s not hard, and it’s nice, and it keeps people from feeling sad. If they react to that message in a bad way then that’s on them.

Edit(this does depend on communication style though, I have some friends that we just send each other messages every few months like pen pals in days of yore)

Well,

Not good. Done it a few times in my life, and I hate myself for it. I was in the recieving end for a while, like 5 years. It feels awful, specially if you are dealing with insecurities.

ghosting is leaving someone on “read” for more than 2 days.

This is totally normal behavior. People are busy. Sometimes they read your message and say to themselves “I see this now, but I’m feeling stressed and busy right now - I’ll reply later when I can write a good response.” But then later happens, and it turns out they are tired and forgetful.

Especially if you are just trying to have a casual conversation - people will treat these messages as lower priority and also as requiring more emotional energy, since the conversation isn’t urgent but they don’t want to write dismissive one word responses.

I recommend:

1. Send texts primarily to exchange information or make arrangements to meet.
2. If you want to have a conversation, either meet in person or have a phone call.
3. If a person has failed to respond to a text, then wait until the next time you have some reason to contact them - which could be as simple as “I want to talk to them”. At which point, text them the info you need to give to them and/or pitch a time to meet up or have a phone call. If they don’t respond to this, I tend to follow up with a snarky “HellooOOOoooo”. And then if they don’t respond to that, a sincere message asking if they are okay. If they still don’t respond to that, depending on the friendship, I may either write them off, or ask mutual friends what is going on.