[bitwize]

To "ghost" someone is to avoid them without a response. The term probably came from personal relationships (e.g., a woman you were dating starts "ghosting" you). It was previously considered rude but is now appropriate to avoid potentially toxic personal or professional relationships.

[kian]

Pretty sure it's still considered rude.

[bitwize]

You're obviously not a woman who has had to deal with potentially threatening people in your love life. Among women ghosting is 100% a legitimate way to refuse a second/third/etc. date. In business, companies routinely ghost candidates they're not interested in because of the hassle and risk in interacting with candidates who are clearly no-hires. You don't owe anyone with whom you do not have a solid established relationship an interaction.

[arendtio]

I think there is a fine line between 'rude' and 'appropriate' in this case.

- Simply stopping to respond to requests without signaling in any way, that you are not interested in continuing the interaction is rude (aka ghosting).

- Signaling even just once that you would not like to continue the interaction (as clearly and polite as possible) and ignoring the other side from that point on is appropriate.

Even though you might not 'owe anyone' anything, humans typically have socially accepted behavior patterns. So the argument is less about what you must do and more about what the majority of people around you consider good style. However, these things might differ between cultures and social circles.

[slipframe]

Rational as it may be, it's still rude.

[technothrasher]

> Among women ghosting is 100% a legitimate way to refuse a second/third/etc. date.

Even back in the prehistoric times of my dating days, which was before I recall the term "ghosting" existed, it wasn't an uncommon thing. It might have been disappointing on occasion, but I never found it "rude". It wasn't very hard to take the hint and move on.

[hellbannedguy]

It's a word we need to stop using. Along with "Flexing".

I had this one English teacher who squashed any interest in writing after I took his class. He was known as Red because that's what color our papers were when he was finished grading them.

He did say a few thing that felt right. One was just don't use cliches. The other was don't use slang.

[kennywinker]

Shakespeare would probably have some strong, formerly slang, words to say about your English teacher's take on using slang. Today's synonyms are yesterdays slang, and arguing against embracing the fluidity of language is just saying dead old white guys have a monopoly on inventing words.

[gnulinux]

I have never met a single person in my life who didn't ghost multiple people especially in business and dating. Like I receive 10 messages from LinkedIn everyday from recruiters trying to hire me when I'm not on the job market and trying to focus on my job and hobbies. What am I supposed to do?

It's clearly rude to ghost friends, acquaintances, business partners etc. But if someone reached out to you with the intention of doing business with you, I think it's ok to ghost them if you're 100% not interested. Am I wrong?

[denton-scratch]

Ignoring some recruiter you've never heard of isn't 'ghosting'. 'Ghosting' is when someone you know, and have a reasonable expectation will take your calls, suddenly stops taking them, without explanation.

It's a discourteous and lazy way of dumping a romantic interest.

[N00bN00b]

>It's a discourteous and lazy way of dumping a romantic interest.

Language isn't fixed, the meaning of words, especially "new" words (and ghosting is a new verb) changes over time. That was the original meaning, but it's now applied to all relationships.

>Ghosting is by no means limited to long-term romantic relationships. Informal dating relationships, friendships, even work relationships may end with a form of ghosting.

https://www.psycom.net/what-is-ghosting

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ghosting

[denton-scratch]

I was unclear (in the interest of brevity:-)

For clarity, I didn't mean that ghosting was only to do with dumping partners. I suppose I was suggesting that that's the canonical example.

[N00bN00b]

Ah alright. I thought you didn't know. Have a good one.

[iudqnolq]

I think it's only ghosting if you break off a conversation, not if you never start one. If I send you Viagra spam and you don't reply that's clearly not ghosting.

[MereInterest]

I think "ghosting" is also used when one person breaks off a conversation, but the other person continues the conversation despite the conversation being broken off. At that point, an obnoxiously persistent person may conclude that that are being ghosted, rather than noticing that the conversation was over.