Before anyone calls me an idiot, believe me, I'm aware that if everyone had this mentality the human race would likely be a shell of itself if not outright extinct, but this 'tough love' of telling people, mostly guys, to just tough it out and take the plunge is really inconsiderate and not taking on board what it is people really fear.

What makes this worse is pushing the idea of 'you have to take risks' or 'you can't spend your whole life avoiding heartbreak.' without acknowledging the effects of what rejection can do to a persons mentality, especially when an aftermatch can lead to embarrassing social media shame at best and possible harrassment claims at worst.

A big reason people are scared is not the rejection itself, but rather the reaction or aftermath to it and it's especially difficult for anyone who is only starting dating in their mid to late twenties because they haven't learned what's accurately appropriate and thus they're more susceptible to judgement for failing at it as they get older.

No one is born a casanova and without realising it there are going to be statements said and actions made that are creepier or cringier than you thought they would be, but these are more forgiveable if you are of a younger age were you are more malleable to understand right from wrong and thus learn from it

Accidentally crossing that creepy line then becomes a point of no return and rather than be told not to do this, people that are 'supposed' to know this information before hand simply because of their age are often subject to the aforementioned issues.

I get this isn't always the case and not everyone is out for the blood of their would-be admirers and I'm not justifying people who send explicit pics at the start of a conversation, common sense would dictate any decent person not do that at all, but common sense would also say to not take the risk in the first place.

So when a person says they're afraid of rejection, they're not afraid of someone simply saying thank you but I'm not interested, they're scared of the negative reaction that could affect them in the long run even as unlikely as it may appear it can still happen.