“Have you ever been ghosted? Totally left in the dark by someone you care about? No text. No DMs. Nothing,” MTV’s preview for their new show, Ghosted opens with this dramatic quote while showing people crying over the fact they were betrayed by people they once considered their friends.
Similar to MTV’s other show Catfish, their new show, Ghosted: Love Gone Missing, focuses on helping people find the person who “ghosted” them. “Ghosting” is a non confrontational way to end a relationship by simply not answering a person’s calls or texts. The show’s goal is to find these “ghosters” through internet sleuthing and force them to confront the person they suddenly started ignoring.
Sounds juicy and dramatic right? Well, some people think this show should be cancelled before it even premieres.
People have expressed that the show goes too far with its internet investigations. Some are worried that it may encourage internet stalking since the show features the hosts tracking down a person who intentionally does not want to be found. The shows paints the person who was ghosted as the victim and the ghoster as the villain. But in reality, its entirely possible that the roles could be reversed. Someone could decide to ghost someone else because they felt the other person was toxic and a confrontational end to their relationship could potentially be dangerous.
This kind of negative feedback seems to be the overwhelming majority. But is MTV really crossing boundaries here?
Alicia Lutes, who has written for MTV, points out the fact that ‘reality’ shows don’t often portray reality. She tweeted, “Yeah see both parties would 1,000% have to agree and sign ahead of time, ala Catfish, so the show’s entire conceit is basically bull.” Her point being that, legally, there’s no way a ghoster would have a surprise meeting with the person they ghosted. She also continued by tweeting that on Catfish, it was usually the person doing the catfishing that contacted the show rather than the person who was catfished. So, there’s a good chance that Ghosted is the same way, with ghosters contacting MTV to be on the show. If anything, this show may encourage people to ghost more if there’s a chance they could be on TV for it.
What do you think? Does this show go too far with their internet investigations or is it just another over-dramatized reality show?