Recently a new network word "ghost" is popular on line, which refers to a sort of Internet social behavior that your net friends or loved ones don't answer your online messages or phones on purpose as if leaving the earth. Thus you often wonder whether those chatters are ghosts or pretending to be dead. This behavior is called ghosting in the English world, which means "playing with disappearance".
"Ghost" is better known as a noun referring to spirits of the dead, but "ghost" used as a verb which means "to disappear suddenly like a ghost", or "play with disappearance" is relatively unknown. Finally, owing to its high using frequency online, this usage has been added to the Oxford Dictionary of Contemporary English.
Playing with disappearance or ghosting also has different grades. Wendy Walsh, a professor of psychology from Boston University told us, "There are different grades of ghosting: If you just read on social software but never answer, you are only a lightweight ghosting player; if you meet a person several times but try to avoid him, you are an ordinary ghosting player; if you let your partner fall in love with you, but you suddenly disappear; which will give the other a heavy blow, you are a heavyweight ghosting player."
Why are some people accustomed to this kind of escapist social behavior? The Times reports that ghosting has a lot to do with how comfortable people feel and how they deal with their emotions. When they are in a complex interpersonal relationship, or it is too heavy for their weak mind to carry, they will have to choose to escape.
When you find yourself being ghosted, you may lose your self-respect, question yourself, or even hesitate to start the next friendship or love. How to get out of this emotional trouble? It's important to remember that when you're ghosted, it's the other's fault rather than yours. In addition, it's good to risk telling others how you really feel, even if it's not what they want to hear. Have you ever been ghosted? What do you think of this way of dealing with a relationship?
