To Dr. Sherman, orbiting is a sign of bad communication and can be passive-aggressive. Even people who "forgot" to unfollow someone have a new chance to do so every time a new story pops up. So continuing to watch the stories can be selfish at worst, and inconsiderate at best. "It doesn’t seem likely that orbiters are considering how this makes the other person feel. Many daters would prefer that someone who ghosts them stays gone," she says. But if our dates were considering other people's feelings, there would be no ghosting or orbiting in the first place. If everyone could empathize with how it feels when someone they dated disappears with no explanation, they'd likely be better at explaining why they're not interested in taking things further. "They would end things and ask if they could stay friends or could continue to stay in touch via social media, and they would give the other person a chance to respond," Dr. Sherman says. "It is possible they tell themselves that staying friends via social media will make the person they rejected feel better about things, but this seems misguided."