The 8 Struggles Of Being Part Of A Group Chat

WhatsApp group chats are the best and worst thing that could ever happen to you. I personally can’t keep count of them anymore; there’s one for the family, another for the second cousins, an “official” one for work, another for the cool colleagues, one for school friends, another for university friends, and on and on. Though having a group chat seems like a good idea at first – you know, to plan outings and share gossip or funny gifs – you quickly realize you need serious managerial skills to deal with all of it. Here’s why.

Your group chat always blows up at the worst times

You’re either trying to sleep or in a work meeting, and suddenly your friends feel the need to talk about all sorts of things. Your phone won’t stop buzzing while your boss is mid-sentence and you can’t help it, but the FOMO hits you bad. So you find a way to sneak into the conversation under your boss’s nose.

Trying to catch up on the whole conversation

When you finally get a break, you scroll though what seems like several kilometers worth messages to catch up. And if it just so happens that the conversation is still going, it brings you all the way back to the bottom. Good luck scrolling up again, because if you ever fail to read all 235 messages, you’ll be sassed for daring to ask about the one thing that someone mentioned and that you missed.

Making plans with so many people at once

Cynthia said she wants to meet late around 9:30 but Mandy prefers to meet at 8. And I said I don’t mind as long as we meet at my apartment. Wait, so now we’re meeting in Jbeil in a Lebanese restaurant for Muriel? This goes on for hours until someone pulls their excel sheet. Beware; there will be casualties during this process.

Receiving the pictures of a hang out you’re missing

So everyone’s finally agreed on a place and time but it turns out you actually can’t make it. Then you receive all the selfies of their awesome gathering while you’re stuck some place else. They’ll even have the nerve to upload a fabulous group icon picture though you’re not in it. Good times!

Having all these mixed emotions

Oh the pain of something you said being ignored though seen by everyone. The satisfaction you get from coming up with the perfect group name, and then the anger when someone changes it. The frustration when you send something funny, but the other participants are already talking so nobody pays attention to your message. All the feelings.

Texting the wrong group chat

Like when Gretta sends a personal voice note to her work group chat instead of her family group. And Cynthia ends up sharing her sushi order to the friend she declined an invitation from. It’s still all okay up until I send a gossip-worthy screenshot of Noha’s convo to our common group chat. Why did this happen?!

Not bothering to go private

It’s awkward and confusing when two people start having their own chitchat instead of just texting each other privately. Or when you actually text your friend one-to-one and she doesn’t answer you… but ends up answering in the group chat. Seriously?

Being added to an already existing group chat

It’s severely awkward to be suddenly added to a group chat that’s already been going for a while, and worse if you don’t know any of the members. Isn’t there any group chat etiquette here? All you want to do is exit/delete group, but will you then regret it and want back in? Tough decisions; I’ll just mute it for a year!