the silent treatment

[boygirlparty]

i just read a pretty interesting post on the silent treatment (wooo friday night!) personally, i am really not a believer in this method of communication (or, more appropriately, lack thereof) and especially with friends and loved ones, i think it can damage the stability of that relationship because it sets you up to see that relationship with

Comments

[boygirlparty]

i see a difference between someone avoiding as a means to create distance rather than giving the silent treatment in a conflict. i have definitely avoided contact with people in the past that i need space from, or even people that i feel i'm not really (or don't really want to be) friends with anymore because what else can you really do? tell them "i don't want to be friends with you?" i guess you could do that, but that seems weird.

i have been on the receiving end of this as well, ie someone consciously creating distance and/or ending a friendship, and it sucks but it happens. this seems like a bigger deal now than it was when we were younger - i think it's because of social networking, it forcibly ties us to other people FOREVER whether or not we actually want to maintain that friendship.

i guess i relate the article above more to those situations when silent treatment is inflicted upon someone as a means of *getting them to apologize* or to make them feel bad about something they've done or said or something like that.

sucks no matter how or why it's administered, though. and the whole "ending friendships abruptly" thing is another blog post for another day, because i have to say, i don't understand that one either.