Bye, Boo: 12 People On Why They Chose To Ghost

Despite its negative connotations, ghosting is scary common — and not just in the torrid love lives of your friends. A study from 2018 published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships found that out of over 1,300 people, 20% had been ghosted themselves and 25% had ghosted others.

Ghosting is a bit of a vague concept but can range from simply not replying to someone who never follows up anyway to suddenly ignoring all contact and blocking someone as if they never existed with no explanation. No matter where your experiences sit on the ghoster scale, it's important to remember that it's not an inherently evil act. Some people have genuine reasons for ceasing contact with people, and it doesn't occur exclusively in a romantic context.

But whether it’s done by a date, friend or employer, it always stings to some degree. Even if you barely know the person, the lack of answers or closure can leave the ghostee with some emotional baggage, always wondering why things went down the way they did. And because of this, we can’t help but wonder what pushes people to take these measures.  

So to gain some insight into the minds of ghosters, we trawled the very honest threads of Reddit to sus what exactly motivates people to ghost someone.

From laziness to commitment issues and beyond, ahead are twelve people and their reasons.