Maybe I'm old school

I have two sons who are now young adults and I will admit that listening to them makes me wonder just how old I am. Their slang is foreign to me. Their idea of proper behavior leaves me scratching my head. Their dating etiquette makes me wonder what on earth has happened. Then again I'm an older Gen-X and a lot of things that I would just take as common sense, well, just isn't that common anymore.

An annoying phone call

Even as we speak I just got a spam call. My phone said "spam", I didn't recognize the phone number so I just hung up. However, I do actually answer calls from numbers that look legitimate. Sometimes they are legitimate and sometimes they are surveys, or calling for donations.

What do you when you get obvious annoying calls??

If you were either or my sons you wouldn't even bother answering a phone call in the first place. If you know the number, ok, then answer it. Otherwise leave a message and if its important they will call back. Maybe. As for myself? Once I'm on the line I often get a line "I'm calling from the Police community society. Or we are calling from Help the kids. Or whatever it may be. My usual response:

Thank you for calling. However, I'm not interested in donating. Goodbye"*

And then I just hang up the phone.

My wife gets after me for being rude. My mom? She would probably talk to them for 5 or more minutes as she doesn't want to be rude and just hang up on someone. My sons? Just hang up. Don't engage.

Honstly? My son's may have a point. Why waste your time with garbage calls? Then again, my upbringing tells me that the person on the other end of the line deserves a little respect and closure on the call. A simple Good-Bye.

More than just phone calls

However, ending things goes more than just phone calls. When I leave my employer I expect to give notice before I leave. In a conversation I'll politely listen and respond before disengaging...even if it is an annoying person in the park. When dealing with people on social media? Again, never leave someone hanging on a response. Yes is yes. No is no. And goodbye means the end of a conversation.

My son's? For some reason they think that "ghosting" someone is a legitimate way to end something.

Not interested? Just ignore it long enough and it will go away. Don't like someone or they hurt your feelings or did something to offend? Easy. Don't reply and don't bother.

To them it is perfectly normal.

To me? Not so much.

Turn off the lights and close the door

I know I'm "old school" but I like to turn off the lights when I leave a room and close the door behind me. I like to turn off the oven when I'm finished. Finish a story when I start telling one and when I'm writing an essay I like to .....

..... finish it rather than leave it hanging.

To me that just makes sense. However, Ghosting people seems to be become more prevalent today. Job candidates (or Interviewers) ghosting potential job seekers. One day we even had a pharmacist just not show up for work, and she changed her phone number, and we never saw her again. Kind of wonder what happened to her.

Of course, most commonly it is in dating that people ghost other people.

Kind of sad really. The person who gets ghosted never gets to figure out what they did wrong (or right). There is no closure for either party. And the person who did the ghosting? They now have to look over their shoulder to avoid meeting the person accidentally and being forced to answer the question. What happened?

I like finishing my books

To me, being ghosted is like having a story that never gets finished. There is always that question mark as to ... Why? A relationship cut short for unknown reasons. I was thinking of possible analogies. My first thought was a child that was kidnapped...but that's a little too dark. How about going to the washroom.... then not washing your hands....or doing the paperwork? I mean you could do it...but just a little effort finishes things off. Ghosting people...

Well, its just not a Gen-X thing to do.

.... And if any of the younger generation want to enlighten me? Awesome, I love comments. Anyone care to agree with me? Well, I like those comments too.

Either way,

Thanks for making it this far. Appreciate it.

And to the people who wrote the Hive Learners prompt "Have I ever ghosted someone?". Not that I can think of. You might be able to guess that isn't my style from the article above :)