Was he too entitled, or should she pay up?
By Jill Zwarensteyn — Written on Apr 16, 2018
Dating can be both awkward and frustrating, and in the case of two single people from Indiana, it just became way more crazy.
Amanda Burnett went on a first date of dinner and drinks. After the date, the man she went out with had texted her letting her know that he was interested in having a second date the following day. However, instead of texting him back that she wasn't interested, Amanda just decided not to respond back at all, also known as ghosting.
After several weeks went by, Amanda had naturally assumed that she wouldn't have to engage with this guy ever again. That was when she was sent a bill for her half of their date together.
Obviously this guy wasn't too thrilled about the idea of getting ghosted and figured he was entitled to be reimbursed for the date.
It's a scenario in which I'm sure that if Seinfeld was written today, George Costanza would try himself.
In this situation, it's easy to see why Twitter users' responses run the gamut. Initially, it's easy to sympathize with the guy and even commend him for the bold move. Perhaps he had been ghosted before and was sick of putting himself, and his finances, out there only for people to just ignore him.
You wonder how she could be so rude as to not at least give him the courtesy of letting him know that she is not interested.
On the other hand though, as many women can relate, there are times when we feel really uncomfortable around certain guys. We know nothing about this man.
Sure, he had enough manners to pay for their date, but was he too forward and made her nervous? Perhaps this girl had told a previous guy that she just wasn't interested and he cursed her out about it, so she figured ghosting might be the better choice. When you think about the social climate and as new understandings of the struggles women have to face when dating (especially over dating apps), the lines start to blur and it becomes easier to side with the ghoster.
Either way, Amanda was so shocked that she decided to share her story on Twitter, the invoice went viral and, as you can imagine, it drew mixed reactions from the public:
One woman decided to change the bill to reflect her own dating struggles.
Ghosting can be one of the worst ways to show someone that you are not interested in them. As if dating wasn't already hard enough, ghosting leaves people hanging without any explanation. You end up going over a million scenarios as to why you never heard back from someone you had a great time with.
However, although ghosting seems like a really bad move on the part of the person doing it, there are also very real reasons why it is done.
Some people may not be great at letting someone down, or they genuinely feel nervous about how the other person may respond. In the situation of the date in Indiana, maybe splitting the cost of the date up front would have been be a less awkward option.
Jill Zwarensteyn is a writer and Michigan native. When she's not writing, Jill enjoys Zumba class, travel, and referencing classic Seinfeld episodes.