I keep seeing people misuse 'ghosted' for every kind of silence

This girl at work said her friend 'ghosted' her because she didn't reply to a meme for 6 hours. That's not ghosting. Ghosting is when someone cuts off all contact after things were going well, like after a date or a job interview. I read a piece from 2023 that said the term originated from dating apps where people literally vanish like a ghost. Now everyone calls a slow text reply ghosting and it waters down the real experience. Has anyone else noticed this getting worse?

3 comments

3 Comments

wilson.sam1mo ago

6 hours over a meme, and people are calling it ghosting? I swear @the_cameron hit it right on the head, this feels like we've stretched one word to cover every little delay. Maybe it's annoying, but is it really that big of a deal to worry about?

thomas.parker1mo ago

Six hours over a meme? Yeah that's not ghosting at all.

the_cameron1mo agoMost Upvoted

Okay, my buddy once took a full 72 hours to reply to a single "k" text. Six hours is basically a blink in internet time. Maybe they were halfway through a game of Overwatch when the meme popped up, or maybe they had to mentally prepare their response. Calling that ghosting is like getting mad at someone for not picking up a phone call during a movie.