Apparently social media practices, and in particular social media practices that relate to dating, are starting to spill over into the workplace. As a labor shortage becomes more pronounced and there are presumably multiple job offers for available employees, it's becoming increasingly common for hiring managers to experience the practice of "ghosting".
Ghosting occurs when the person with whom you have been holding regular and frequent communications simply drops off the air. The person doesn't respond to emails, texts, social media messaging, IMs, posts, anything. It's like they've vanished from the world, or at least the digital world.
This is a very real thing among people who are dating, or even in serious relationships. One of the most entertaining Ask a Manager vignettes I've ever read involved a guy who simply walked out on his live-in girlfriend of two years when she was on vacation and never returned or made contact with her. What made the story particularly interesting is that he was working a job several years later, only to discover that his ghosted ex was about to come back into his life as his new boss. You can read about it here, and the follow-up here.
In any event, there's not much an employer can do when someone that you were pursuing simply decides you aren't worth the effort. It's bad form, and burns bridges that people shouldn't be burning, but these are typically immature workers, after all. To expect them to look down the road past their next job might be too much at this point. But it would be nice if someone would sit down with these people and explain to them that it really is a small world, and the ghost they just created might come back to be the ghost in their machine in some future role.
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