Still, at the end of the day, many seem to feel that silence is better than having to deal with conflict.

Ghosting comes with its own flavor of moral discomfort, with most ghosters stating that they feel at least a little guilty after the fact.

“The only thing worse than being broken up with,” writes author Heidi Priebe, “is realizing that someone didn’t even consider you worth breaking up with.” While ghostees are haunted by an insulting and unsatisfying lack of closure, ghosters aren’t necessarily getting off the hook pain-free. What hurts the most? According to this Thought Catalog article, it’s the indifference. In another less formal survey in Elle Magazine, 46 percent of men and 52 percent of women said they’d been ghosted at some time or other. This is done in the hopes that the ghostee will just ‘get the hint’ and leave the subject alone.” It’s pretty ubiquitous: a YouGov/Huffington Post Poll of 1,000 individuals showed that 11 percent had ghosted others and 13 percent had been ghosted themselves. They define ghosting as “the act of suddenly ceasing all communication with someone the subject is dating, but no longer wishes to date.

Why is it, in an age where we’re all hyper-connected, we think it’s OK to practice the discourtesy of radio silence? Though it has been recognized as a bona fide word by the likes of The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Elle Magazine and Psychology Today, our best definition for the phenomenon comes from Urban Dictionary. Not interested? Don’t answer their texts, calls, messages … and definitely don’t give them a reason.

Radio silence meaning relationship