Ghosted by blue ticks: How to avert a modern tragedy

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who have blue ticks on WhatsApp and those who've chosen the dark side.

- Tulsi Jayakumar

This piece is about the latter—a growing tribe. Let me begin by clarifying: I'm not talking about unread messages. I'm talking about read messages. Ones that have been consumed by someone's cornea, cognitively processed and perhaps chuckled at, but for which there is no outward evidence. Nada. No blue ticks.

For the uninitiated (if any exist), blue ticks on WhatsApp are not just a social signal, but part of modern online messaging etiquette. Sent a message? Two grey ticks mean it was delivered. Two blue ticks mean it was read. No blue ticks can spell existential angst.

Now imagine sending a carefully crafted message—perhaps a witty one-liner, a risky proposal, or worse, a confirmation of dinner plans—and being met with…radio silence. No response. And worse, no blue ticks. Has it been read? Has it even got a glance? Are you being ghosted? Or is the recipient just unbothered? Or did the person fall off a Himalayan cliff? The answer, of course, is that the app's 'read receipts' feature has been turned off. It's the equivalent of saying, "I'm not ignoring you, I just don't like the pressure of replying." Oh, please. You left me hanging like an unread "Terms & Conditions" pop-up. My first impulse was to dismiss such behavior as a passive-aggressive rejection of accountability. But being a person of some academic inclination, I decided to investigate further. Surely, there must be some research on this epidemic of blue-tick dodging? Turns out, there is.