I read the other day, in the New York Times, about the phenomenon of “hiding in plain e-sight”. Oh, yes, it’s such a “thing”.
HIPES – as I’ll call it for expediency – is the act of hiding from people’s unanswered calls, texts and emails, seemingly unavailable and presumably offline, while being visible on social media (thus, clearly online).
HIPES, of course, leads to all kinds of modern relationship ills. And hurts.
As the journo who coined HIPES put it, “Almost any action we take on social media, even tapping a screen twice to form a thumbs-up or heart, is a time-stamped signpost that we were paying attention to at least some of our smartphone communication.”
So true.
Thusly, you have the sister who gets the shits because she’s seen you like someone’s Instagram photo or issue a Tweet or even comment on her own Facebook feed all since she left you a voicemail asking you to call her back to discuss Christmas plans.
And the old-school friend (or old person) who calls and leaves long voicemails and gets offended when the other