There aren't a lot of data specifically on group chats, but there is some research delving into the implications of unrequited online messages. But omnipresent digital conversations, Hayes says, "take processes that have existed since the beginning of time and amplify them in a way that might have a more enduring psychological impact." Yes, it has always hurt to realize you're no longer a member of a certain friend group, or that people you introduced now prefer each other's company to yours. "One thing that platforms like group chats facilitate is a more public, more apparent and more interactive ability to leave out folks," says Rebecca Hayes, an assistant professor of communication at Illinois State University who studies social-media interactions. Research firm eMarketer doesn't have group-chat-specific data either, but projects that 173 million Americans will use mobile messaging apps by 2020 – more than double the amount that did in 2014. Neither Facebook nor Google were willing to reveal the quantity of group chats they currently host, but in 2014, when Facebook acquired WhatsApp, a spokesperson said the messaging program had already hosted a billion group chats. A recent Facebook survey of 12,500 people found that 59 per cent of people use its message service, an increase from two years ago, with 65 per cent of participants saying that "messaging has made group communication easier." Over the past almost-decade, group chats on Facebook, WhatsApp and Google Hangouts have become woven into our social fabric. They're deeply convenient gathering places – to make plans, to confess news, to distract from work – and just a smartphone check away.īut with ever-present, real-time conversations increasingly dictating our social lives, awkward questions arise: Who gets to be a part? And what happens when you're left out? My friends and I, all approaching 30 or cowering just on the other side of it, organize most of our social lives with group chats. For him, this meant cutting Nelle off from the place where we've made plans for three years – where it was always possible to find someone willing to meet up for beers, brunch or both. "I'm just trying to be a friend to Blair," Tom said. One friend lifted his phone up and pointed the screen at Tom, agasp.
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