The act of “Ghosting” has been declared as an emotional offense in a house bill filed by a lawmaker and it is making everyone check their memories and remember all the times they’ve been ghosted or ghosted somebody.
And rightfully so as a legal offense is no joke. This is how the act of ghosting was presented in the explanatory note of the House Bill No. 611 filed by Negros Oriental Rep. Arnie Teves Jr.
Ghosting
– when someone cuts off all forms of communication can be mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting to the “ghosted” person. Studies have shown that social rejection of any kind activates the same pain pathways in the brain as physical pain, meaning there’s a biological link between rejection and pain. That goes for friends and partners, alike
This was in consideration of the changes on the realm of dating especially in the age of social media. Ghosting usually happens in a dating or romantic relationship which in our time majorly comprises of communication through our mobile phones.
The explanatory note of the bill also states that “the ambiguity with ghosting is that there is no real closure between parties concerned”.
With the growing awareness of the society on mental health, the lawmaker stresses in the note that ghosting affects the mental state of the “ghosted” and even said that it can be “likened to a form of emotional cruelty” and should be punished as an emotional offense
We all know that ghosted people will try to wrestle on possible reasons for the unexplained act and that it has become a quiet common experience for all of us.
Although the house bill was filed, Teves did not provide any penalty or punishment for such an act.
We’re sure that there will be proper grounds for this so no need to panic yet and there’s still the big question of “if it ever becomes law”.
What do you think? Is what Rep. Teves says “trauma due to no real closure” a reasonable ground to make ghosting an emotional offense be passed onto law?
