Your date from last weekend still hasn't texted you back about hanging out again. A promising new lead at work suddenly stopped responding after you shared your rates. The guy on Facebook Marketplace who offered to buy your old television just never came to pick it up, and you never heard from him again.

Ghosting is when someone stops responding to messages and disappears from a relationship without explanation, usually in the context of dating. The term can also be used for any situation where a person abruptly stops communicating or showing up, such as when a friend starts ignoring your texts or when an employee just stops showing up to work without ever formally quitting.

"Ghosting exists on a spectrum and can happen at literally any part of dating, from disappearing from a chat on a dating app and unmatching, to leaving your text messages on 'Read' after a date, to cutting off all communication with you after years of dating," explains sex and dating coach Myisha Battle, M.S. "All of this is ghosting behavior."

Many relationship experts discourage ghosting because of the way it affects the person being ghosted. "It leaves the other person to guess at what they did or didn't do to cause you to ditch them. That guessing is the specter that looms in people's lives after a disappearance," Battle tells mbg.

The phenomenon of ghosting has likely been around since the dawn of time. Consider the cavewomen who had to start getting choosy with their sexual partners because they didn't want to birth a child with someone who could disappear without a trace shortly thereafter, or the lovelorn man in Colonial times pouring his heart out in handwritten letters to some distant lover, only to never hear back. Many a '90s rom-com, too, featured a despondent leading lady hovering over a landline telephone for days on end, waiting hopelessly for the guy who took her out a few days ago to call her up and ask her out again. (He often never did.)

While the behavior itself isn't new, the term "ghosting" itself rose to popularity in the early 2010s. In 2015, after online tabloids ran headlines about how Charlize Theron "ghosted" Sean Penn, the New York Times even wrote an explainer on the term, calling it "the ultimate silent treatment." Merriam-Webster added it to the dictionary in 2017.

It makes sense that ghosting would get a lot of people talking around this time: With technology rapidly transforming the speed and ease with which people could communicate with one another, ghosting behavior likely felt even more pronounced than ever. While mailing a letter just to reject someone may have been legitimately too much time and effort back in the day, the fact that people were still disappearing on each other without a trace even now that a kinder closure was literally just a few quick button taps away...harsh!

Dating apps were also just beginning to enter into the cultural mainstream, with Tinder launching in 2012. (Though to be fair, what's often thought of as the world's first online dating site, Match.com, launched in 1995, and we can only imagine people ghosted one another as much then as they do on today's best dating apps.)

In most cases, people ghost because they're no longer interested in pursuing a relationship with the other person. Instead of telling them that upfront, they go for the easiest and most convenient route: just stop responding.

The other most common reason for ghosting? They just have a lot going on in their own life.

"Sometimes when people ghost us, it's because they are focused on other things or may be isolating themselves because they are feeling depressed," marriage and family therapist Patrice N. Douglas, LMFT, previously told mbg. "Everything isn't always about us, so we can't panic right away."

Ghosting can also happen when someone is just anxious about ending the relationship because they struggle with hard conversations in general. According to licensed counselor Shae Ivie-Williams, LPC, BC-TMH, CCTP, people with certain backgrounds may be more likely to ghost: "[They] may not want to have those hard conversations because maybe their family didn't have hard conversations when they were young," she previously told mbg. "And so having those types of conversations involves vulnerability." 

But even though people may find it uncomfortable to reject someone, they may be making it worse by opting to ghost: "It also doesn't feel great to be the ghoster!" Battle points out. "Most people experience some amount of guilt for ghosting."

How you respond to ghosting depends on what you want out of the situation and out of your relationship with this person.

If you're not interested in this person anymore, just leave it be and move on. You really don't need to say anything to them, and the sooner you can get them out of your head, the better.

If this is a person you are still interested in dating or having in your life, just reach out again one more time and ask what's going on. Be direct.

When in doubt, talk it out. If you think someone is ghosting you, reach out one more time and ask them directly about what's going on and whether they're still interested in pursuing things with you. If you don't hear from them, it's time to move on.

And remember: While rejection stings, ghosting is almost always much more about the ghost's issues than it is about issues with the person being ghosted. In fact, getting ghosted says essentially nothing about you.

"Having someone ghost you says infinitely more about them than it does about you," spiritual teacher Monica Berg writes at mbg. "You're getting a firsthand look at how this person, who just days ago was so marvelous, actually handles their emotions, your emotions, and difficult circumstances in general. 'Runs away at any sign of conflict' typically doesn't make anyone's list of dream qualities in a partner, and you got to see that clearly and upfront."

By now, we know that exercising can help strengthen and grow our muscles. But does the same principle apply to our eyes? 

Today's technology-oriented lifestyle has most adults stuck in front of the screen for at least eight hours a day (and that could just be work!). Add phone use or a nightly TV wind-down and that number can creep up to 12 hours. 

And gazing intently (at anything) close up puts strain on your eyes. To help counter this and promote optimal eye health and longevity, many optometrists recommend certain eye exercises. But don't worry, these don't require hours at the gym to see results.

"None of the eye muscles need strengthening—they're all strong enough to do the job they need to do," says Jeffery Anshel, O.D., FAAO. "For example, the muscles on the outside of the eye, that move the eyes up and down and left and right are 200 times stronger than they need to be to move an eyeball."

So eye exercises—or more accurately eye techniques—are intended to help the eyes focus (aka control the muscles), stay flexible (move from looking up close to afar), and coordinate (which actually occurs in the brain). 

Eye exercises can be useful for those with strained eyes (usually from looking at something closely for long periods), light sensitivity, motion sensitivity, and more. 

Anshel recommends that most heavy computer users follow the 20-20-20 rule: "Just take 20 seconds and look 20 feet away every 20 minutes." 

It's easy to get lost in a rabbit hole when working away on the computer (as a writer, I know that all too well), and sometimes hours pass before you even look around. 

Another technique Anshel recommends (and has even practiced himself) is often referred to as near-far focus shifting. 

For this, you want to cover one eye and then look far away (it could be looking at the far end of the room you're in, for example). Focus on that spot until it's clear, and then look at something up close (it could be a hand or something at the edge of your desk) until it's clear.

Then look back at the far spot. Do this for around 12 reps. Once you've mastered the distance you started with, make your far spot even farther away. 

Christine Tara Peterson, Ph.D., AHP, RYT, practitioner and researcher in Ayurveda and yoga, encourages people to try a simple concentration exercise. 

"Start with holding a pen or other small object at arm's length and focus on it," she says. "Then, slowly move the object toward your nose, keeping your focus on it."

If you want a relaxing escape without leaving your desk during the workday, consider palming. 

Palming is a relaxation technique that involves covering your closed eyes with your palms.

"Create a warm, dark environment by cupping your hands over your eyes without putting pressure on them," says Peterson. "Take a few deep breaths and relax your eyes for a minute or two."

Marina Gurvich, O.D., recommends drawing a figure eight with your eyes. 

To do this, stare at a blank wall in the distance (it shouldn't be blurry). "Imagine a figure eight on its side (like the infinity sign). Without moving the head, trace it with your eyes in one direction for a few seconds and then the other direction for a few seconds," she instructs. 

 This exercise may help stretch your eye muscles. 

"Sit with your face looking straight ahead at a distance," says Gurvich. "Without moving the head, simply move the eyes up and hold for a few seconds, then down and hold for a few seconds."

This exercise involves moving your eyes in a circular motion as if you're tracing the numbers of a clock. 

According to Gurvich, these exercises can be very effective. "The practice of vision therapy originated more than 150 years ago," she notes. "The eyes need training to build strength and flexibility for eye teaming and tracking to improve visual function and performance." 

But Peterson emphasizes that the results may vary person to person depending on your individual needs and eye concerns.

The eyes are designed to help us see things far away. Thus the strain of looking at things close up for extended periods can mess with your vision and brain. 

Eye exercises can help combat some of the negative outcomes of these modern-day problems by helping your eyes focus and work together as a team. Talk with a health care provider if you have questions about which exercises may be most beneficial for the eye concerns you're experiencing.