Group chats were supposed to make life easier. We were supposed to be more connected, organized and informed because of them. But somehow they do the opposite. They have turned into a constant source of confusion and unnecessary anxiety.

Let’s say you open your phone to 89 unread messages from two hours ago, and now you have to scroll through them all and see what you missed. You feel like you have to read them because you might have missed an important invite, emergency, or something that you need to respond to, so you end up reading everything to figure out how to respond correctly.

Then there are unspoken rules, like not leaving people on read. Which is something I often forget about. I might have opened the message while I was doing something else and I told myself I was going to respond later, but I never got back to it. People take that as some form of disrespect, even if I respond hours after opening it. I understand being angry about never responding, but me responding a little while later should not be something to fret over. Then the rule of replying too fast. My phone buzzed and I looked at it and felt like responding, because that’s just the courteous thing to do. Yet, that is considered weird? Replying too fast should not be seen as a strange thing. 

Group chats also have ways to escalate situations. One simple question can completely change into people sending goofy photos, or a totally different topic. Though I often like to bombard a group chat with ugly photos of my friends, I usually do so after I respond to a question, because I understand it can be annoying. For example, I will ask a question and just get a photo of myself back. Then, I wait a little longer, and the question is never answered, just more photos are sent. Sometimes it’s an important question, and though I love the photos, I get a little peeved. 

There are always new group chats being made for different events. Most of mine are with the same people, just a couple extra people added here and there. And no one ever leaves a group chat. I have so many I haven’t touched in years but there are funny photos saved in them I don’t want to forget.

Even though there are all these little annoyances, I love a good group chat. They make me laugh and bring joy to my life, even if they don’t always do what they are supposed to.