Ghosting

The term “Ghosting,” derived from the English word “ghost,” was added to the Treccani dictionary’s list of neologisms in 2024. The definition reads as follows: “Suddenly and without explanation, cutting off all contact with a person, making oneself untraceable.” Digital anthropology and psychology, within their respective fields of scientific inquiry, have described this phenomenon, which has become increasingly widespread in the age of online relationships and causes a painful sense of abandonment in those who experience it. Digital anthropology studies and seeks to understand the impact of information technologies on the human beings who use them. “One of the aims of anthropology, as Gaetano Piccolo S.J. states, is to foster self-understanding in human beings, that is, to activate a process of awareness of the existential and cultural dynamics in which they find themselves living.” In the 1990s, researchers Daniel Miller and Don Slater launched a study to examine the use and influence of the Internet on the inhabitants of the island of Trinidad. Their pioneering studies in digital anthropology contributed to defining the Internet not only as a source of information and knowledge but as a space where individuals develop and experience existing relational dynamics; the people of Trinidad used the web to communicate with distant loved ones, or forged new ones by creating unpredictable forms of connection and new community formations. These findings led to moving beyond the “digital/virtual” and “material/real” dichotomy to highlight the mutual influence of the two spheres. The “real” informs the “digital,” and the “digital” causes the “real” to evolve in new ways. The rapid and pervasive development of digital technologies has profoundly changed culture, the economy, human identity, and interpersonal relationships. For this reason, an increasingly deep understanding of how humans use technologies across various socio-cultural contexts is essential for analyzing the changes occurring in individuals’ mindsets and inner lives. Social networks and social media have become spaces of belonging, social recognition, professional interaction, communication, and the sharing of passions and feelings.